NFFO has raised the issue of the margin of tolerance with the Commissioner. The federation has repeatedly stressed that requiring observation of an 8 percent margin of tolerance between on-board catch estimate and final landing declaration, especially for by-catch species in mixed fisheries, is neither reasonable nor achievable on a consistent basis in the real conditions found aboard fishing vessels.
It is said that the Commission’s repeated denial that this issue presents a problem has deepen the gap between them. Some progress was made in the recently agreed cod recovery plan where the 8 percent margin is applied only to cod. It is told that the Commissioner made the usual references to past abuse of the 20 percent MOT, and conspicuously failed to agree to the placement of independent observers aboard a range of fishing vessels in real conditions to see if they can achieve better estimates than our crews. The Commission remains in denial on this subject.
The Commissioner agreed to take another look at the issue before the December Council whilst emphasising the difficulties of dealing with mixed fisheries, and the survival rates of some species. Commenting on that NFFO said that the need for an approach that wasn’t dependent on blunt TAC cuts that gave the impression of dealing with the issue but achieve very little in concrete terms.
The Scientific, Technical Economic and Committee for Fisheries (STECF) may best be described as the Commission’s quality control committee. It provides advice to the Commission on the validity of ICES science and other aspects of fisheries policy and has grown considerably in significance in recent years; it now exerts a strong influence on the content of Commission proposals and therefore fisheries regulations.
