The Council has today agreed on fishing opportunities for 2022 for the fish stocks exclusively managed by the EU in the Atlantic, Kattegat and Skagerrak and for stocks shared with Norway bilaterally and with Norway and the United Kingdom trilaterally, following the agreement reached last Friday.
Commenting on the stocks managed by the EU only, Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius said: “Today’s decisions are very good news for all the stocks that we are managing sustainably, guaranteeing that they remain at maximum sustainable yield (MSY) levels. I am very pleased that Member States have followed the Commission’s proposal. We have agreed ten TACs in line with the levels advised by the scientists to guarantee MSY yields.”
In line with the Commission’s proposals, the Council has set ten TACs in line with MSY advice, including two stocks in the lower range of MSY for plaice and for nephrops in the Skagerrak and Kattegat. For cod in the Kattegat, the Council has agreed on a package of measures with a limit of 97 tonnes for unavoidable catches taken in other fisheries and an allowance given to vessels taking part in remote electronic monitoring projects.
In the Bay of Biscay, the Council has agreed to the reopening of the nephrops fishery in Functional Unit 31 to 14 tonnes and to a cut of -36% for sole.
In Iberian waters, the megrim TAC is raised by 13%, the anglerfish TAC by 5% and the horse mackerel TAC by 12%. These increases show that conservation efforts pay off.
On the stocks shared between the EU, Norway and the United Kingdom, 15 out of 18 TACs have been set in line with MSY.
As negotiations regarding stocks shared bilaterally with the UK are still in progress, the Council has adopted temporary contingency TACs for those stocks for the first three months of 2022. This contingency plan ensures that fishing can continue seamlessly into the new year, if an agreement with the UK is not reached before the end of December.
The contingency TACs are generally set at 25% of the 2021 TACs. Exceptions include stocks fished disproportionately at the beginning of the year.
