The Federation is gearing up for an extremely busy autumn. Although the number of stocks under long term management plans is increasing, theoretically reducing the significance of the December Council, the Commission’s suggestion that all stocks suffering from “data deficiencies” should be subject to a 25% reduction in TAC, ensures that we will have to fight to block this perverse and entirely counterproductive approach. At the same time, the STECF/ICES report on the EU Cod Management Plan points to the need for serious changes and the first issue to address is what kind of interim arrangements should apply for 2012 given that the present pre-programmed reductions delivers high levels of discards. One of the clear lessons from an analysis of the current Plan is that a tailored approach is required for the Irish Sea.