Fischler Announces Days Rules Changes – Fishupdate.com

Fischler Announces Days Rules Changes Fishing Monthly Published:  10 March, 2003

EC FISHERIES Commissioner Franz Fischler today unveiled changes to interim cod recovery plan rules.

Confirming concessions fought for by the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation he said the definition of a ‘fishing day’ has proved too rigid and the Commission was proposing to allow increased flexibility. He added:“There are no provisions to allow the transfer of fishing days to larger vessels. This limits the potential economic survival of these vessels We are proposing to allow such transfers.There should be provisions to take into account time spent at sea in case of emergencies We propose a new wording to take emergency situations into account.Innocent passage through the areas covered by annex 17 should not be subject to effort limitation The Commission is proposing to fix this problem.

“These are some of the amendments to the interim recovery plan. They will not weaken the plan but will ensure that the plan reflects better reality.” Meanwhile, he told the first day of a two day workshop on cod recovery in Brussels:“Long term objectives that we set will be crucial for the rebuilding of any stock. They relate to what stock size will be set as the target. Clearly, when we introduce a recovery plan, it is vital to know where we are aiming for.” These objectives must be realistically set and they must also decide on the time of recovery they were going to aim for.