Management and advice
Management of the stocks
In the EU, the Total Allowable Catch or TAC (corresponding to a particular harvesting rate) is set each year by the Council of Ministers following negotiations on catch options that are provided by the Advisory Committee on Fishery Management (ACFM) of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), an independent scientific body. For the main North Sea stocks these options take into account the terms of a management agreement between the EU and Norway. Once a TAC is agreed for each stock and fishing area it is allocated as quotas to Member States in accordance with fixed keys based on historic fishing rights.
In recent years, some seriously depleted stocks have become the subject of emergency measures and recovery plan proposals. Since 2003, the TAC and fishing mortality implemented for these stocks has been linked to effort control measures that restrict the number of fishing days at sea per month permitted for fleets capturing recovery species.
Scientific assessment and advice
ICES advice is based on stock assessments carried out at international working groups, where fishery scientists from the UK and the other exploiting nations compile fisheries data, biological data and survey data for use in fisheries science models. The age structure of a stock (the relative proportion of the different age groups) is largely determined by the fishing rate and by the numbers of young fish that enter the stock each year. When information on age structure is combined with data on landings, fishing effort, and the results of standardised stock surveys carried out by research vessels, the models are able to estimate the historical trend in fishing rate and stock abundance, up to the last full year of data. The assessment is then used to forecast the expected catch in an upcoming TAC year for a range of fishing rate options, taking into account the number of young fish that are expected to enter the stock, based either on survey data, or a recent historical average.
Scientists describe the state of the stocks in terms of the spawning stock biomass (SSB, the weight of mature fish), the fishing rate (F), and the number of juvenile fish or recruits in each year-class. Since 1999 the ICES’ advice has identified which catch options meet precautionary criteria. These criteria aim to ensure sustainability by keeping spawning biomass above a minimum precautionary level, Bpa (set high enough to allow a margin of error sufficient to keep SSB above a lower limit level, Blim), and keeping the fishing rate below a maximum precautionary level, Fpa (set low enough to allow a margin of error sufficient to keep F below an upper limit level, Flim). Blim is therefore below Bpa, and Flim is above Fpa.
Sections on the individual species summarise the present state of the main stocks based on advice from the ACFM meetings of May and October 2005, which evaluated stock assessments using fisheries data for years up to and including 2004, and survey data up to and including 2005. The 2005 ACFM advice formed the basis for the EU proposals that led to the TACs and other measures agreed for 2006 by the EU Council of Ministers.
Full details are contained within Council Regulation (EC) No 51/2006 of 22 December 2005 fixing for 2006 the fishing opportunities and associated conditions for certain fish stocks and groups of fish stocks, applicable in Community waters and, for Community vessels, in waters where catch limitations are required.
