11th November 2015

The North Sea Advisory Council

Report of the Monitoring, Control and Enforcement Focus Group


Deutscher Fischerei-Verband e. V.
Venusberg 36
20459 Hamburg


11^th November 2015


Rapporteur: Tony Hawkins Draft (2)

1 Initial Discussions
1.1 Lorna Duguid opened the meeting. Barrie Deas was appointed chairman of the Focus Group and Tony Hawkins was appointed the rapporteur. There were no apologies. The terms of reference were agreed as follows:

The purpose of the Focus Group was to draft NSAC advice on MCE

The proposed outcome would be an advice paper for subsequent discussion within the NSAC

The target audience for the advice would be the Scheveningen Group, the Commission, the Control Agency and the European Parliament

The key activities of the Focus Group would be to draft a position paper for subsequent consideration by the Demersal Working Group and Executive Committee of the NSAC

The initial draft paper would be forwarded to the Landing Obligation Focus Group, which would meet in London on the 24^th November

At any future meetings we would try to widen involvement by including scientists and control agency personnel, if appropriate.

2 Outcome of the Meeting
2.1 It was agreed that we would try to make contact with the Scheveningen Control Group, a subsidiary of the Scheveningen Hi-Level Group to engage in a dialogue with them on MCE issues arising from the landing obligation. NSAC representatives would raise this at the next meeting of the Scheveningen High Level Group in Paris on The 19th November. We have welcomed the new level of contact with the High Level Group and its Technical Group and would welcome a similar level of contact with the Control Group.

2.2 It was noted that initially the Scheveningen Group were seeking advice from the NSAC on the documentation of catches: the Group had emphasised in their Work Plan that is important that the actual species and quantities caught are documented accurately, both for target and by-catch species. This will need to be done in accordance with the control regulation, as amended. Advice was being sought from the NSAC on specific cases where such documentation is hampered. Any advice should bear in mind the Commission’s recent clarification that recommendations for documenting catches in regional discard plans may include provisions relating to control and enforcement measures as far as they concern the proper recording of catches.

2.3 The Focus Group agreed that MCE issues were far broader than consideration of the documentation of catches. Advice on MCE had to be viewed in the wider context of implementation of the landing obligation, as many factors will affect the degree of compliance by fishermen with the landing obligation. Unwanted catches are unavoidable in fisheries, and it will be necessary to ensure strong compliance with the provisions of the landing obligation.

2.4 It would be important to define a successful outcome in terms of MCE. A number of important measures of success were discussed. It was agreed that full success was unlikely to be obtained from day one, and that there would have to be a period of transition, during which acceptable and effective MCE measures would be developed further in an adaptive way as experience in implementing the landing obligation was gained.

3 Preparation of the advice

3.1 A framework was agreed for preparing and presenting the advice.

3.2 A wide-ranging discussion of the challenges of meeting the MCE requirements of the landing obligation took place amongst participants, and the various points made have been included in the draft advice. It was agreed that the advice would also draw upon existing draft papers prepared for the NSAC and upon a document prepared by the Pelagic Advisory Council, providing its recommendations on control of the landing obligation.
3.3 A draft advice paper was subsequently prepared and is provided with this report.

4 In Attendance

Deas	Barrie	NFFO
Duguid	Lorna	NSAC
Fischer	Kenn Skau	Danish Fishermen’s PO
Hamilton	Heather	Client Earth
Hawkins	Tony	NSAC
Kingma	Irene	Dutch Elasmobranch Society
Park	Michael	SFF
Stone	Samuel	MCS
Visser	Pim	VisNed

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