At its 27th Annual Meeting, held in London 10-14 November, NEAFC put in place the last elements of a series of measures to protect vulnerable marine ecosystems.
NEAFC adopted operational procedures on how fishing vessels should handle encounters with vulnerable ecosystems. These complement measures earlier this year regulating bottom fishing activities in the high seas of the NEAFC Area.
Scientific information on vulnerable marine ecosystems, (VMEs), has not been available to the extent NEAFC would have wished. Assessment of the risk of significant adverse impacts on them by fishing activities will be an ongoing process. The work in 2008 represents what can be done with the information and resources available. NEAFC will continue its assessments beyond 2008 as information and experience grows. Procedures for assessment have been brought into place and each Contracting Party is required to assess impacts for any proposed bottom fishing in 2009. The conclusion of the preliminary assessment is that current bottom fisheries practices in the NEAFC Regulatory Area do not have significant adverse impacts on VMEs, because the VMEs are inside the areas closed by NEAFC to bottom fishing.
To protect vulnerable marine habitats it was agreed to prolong the fishery ban in an area in the Reykjanes Ridge and four seamounts along the mid-Atlantic Ridge. This measure will be in force for the period 1 January 2009 to 31 March 2009. The Parties, prior to its expiration, shall review NEAFC policy on vulnerable marine ecosystems in general and this measure in particular. To this end, the Parties have agreed to meet in the context of the Heads of Delegations in NEAFC headquarters from 24 to 27 March 2009.
NEAFC recommended management measures for all fisheries in the Regulatory Area. Based on Coastal State Agreements, management measures for the three major pelagic fisheries - Norwegian Spring Spawning (Atlanto-Scandian) herring, blue whiting and mackerel - were agreed as were management measures for Rockall haddock and deep-sea fisheries. For pelagic redfish in the Norwegian Sea, an arrangement similar to that for this year was agreed. For pelagic redfish in the Irminger Sea, Coastal and Fishing States agreed to meet again in March 2009, to consider new scientific advice on stock composition, which may allow more mature measures to be brought into place for this stock in time before fishery starts in 2009.
A ban on using gillnets in waters greater than 200 metres depth was maintained as were measures to remove and dispose of unmarked or illegal fixed gear and retrieve lost gear to minimise ghost fishing.
Considering the poor status of the shark stock of spurdog (Squalus acanthias) in the Northeast Atlantic the NEAFC adopted a ban on directed fisheries of spurdog.
NEAFC noted with satisfaction the continued results of the NEAFC IUU (Illegal, Unregulated, Unreported) A- and B-lists. These have wiped out IUU fishery in the North-East Atlantic by vessels of flags of countries that are not Contracting Parties to NEAFC. The transhipment activities that underpinned these fisheries have been brought under control by flag states, reefer registries and owners of reefer vessels. The NEAFC Port Control System, which was introduced on 1 May 2007, has continued to work seamlessly and is deemed to have led to a significant reduction in IUU fishing in the NEAFC area.
NEAFC put one new vessel, the RED, on the B-list. Another vessel name, a case of mistaken identity, was removed from the B-list.
In September 2008 NEAFC signed a Memorandum of Understanding with its environmental counterpart in the North East Atlantic, the OSPAR Commission (for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic). NEAFC is considering 2 Terms of Agreement with the International Maritime Organization, IMO. These are significant developments in a process aimed at increasing cooperation with intergovernmental organisations which monitor and regulate human activities other than fisheries in the marine environment.
The cooperative non-Contracting Party status of Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Belize and the Cook Islands was renewed for 2008. Two applications for cooperative non-Contracting Party status from the Bahamas and Panama are still being considered.
The NEAFC agreed to support the EU-funded project Technical eXperts Overseeing Third country eXpertise, TXOTX, thus supporting attempts to strengthen the scientific basis for fisheries management in developing countries.
