North East Atlantic pelagic fishing boat.
Photo by: MSC.
The 43rd annual meeting of the North-East Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC) concluded on November 15, amid what the European Union has described as "unprecedented disagreements" on sustainable fish stock management, monitoring, and tackling illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
The NEAFC, a regional fishery management commission which includes the European Union, Denmark (representing the Faroe Islands and Greenland), Iceland, Norway, the United Kingdom and the Russian Federation, meets annually to decide on conservation and management measures for fish stocks for the forthcoming year.
However, according to a press statement on November 21 by the EU's Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, this year's meeting "faced challenges in achieving consensus", with EU representatives having "expressed concerns over the absence of a compliance report for the first time in NEAFC’s history".
The EU also said there were "serious infringements" to the NEAFC rules involving vessels from some NEAFC parties. However, these "have not been formally recognised by the organisation and will not be followed up. Infringements of other fleets operating in the NEAFC area will also face no sanctions," the EU emphasized.
The European Union also expressed a series of concerns regarding activities by Russian fishing vessels, including bottom fishing outside of designated areas, which it said is in violation of NEAFC recommendations designed to protect vulnerable marine ecosystems, and stated it "regrets that no other parties called on Russia to cease fishing activities that appear to be illegal, unreported, unregulated (IUU) and to take enforcement action in relevant cases."
In a separate press announcement, the NEAFC said it had "adopted conservation and management measures for 2025 for a number of fish stocks on the basis of the latest independent scientific advice provided by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES)", including for redfish, herring, mackerel, blue whiting and Rockall haddock.
The NEAFC said agreements on pelagic stocks were "not comprehensive", pending confirmation for the Total Allowable Catch for each party for 2025. Regarding other stocks, the Commission agreed on complete bans on fishing of porbeagle and orange roughy, and a "very limited fishery" on spurdog, which had shown recovery during recent years.
However, the EU Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries said that despite reaching agreement on catch limits, "the EU regrets the lack of comprehensive sharing arrangements and the non-cooperative attitude towards the EU in the coastal states’ consultations for Atlanto-Scandian herring", and added it was calling for "decisive action to ensure the sustainable management of pelagic stocks".
