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Oceans and fisheries
News announcement4 May 2020Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries

EU, Norway and the Faroe Islands reach an agreement for better monitoring and control of pelagic fish stocks

On 22 April, the European Union, Norway and the Faroe Islands reached a coastal states agreement for the monitoring, control and surveillance (MSC) of shared pelagic stocks fisheries in the North-East Atlantic (mackerel, horse mackerel, blue whiting and herring).

This is the first dedicated agreement on fisheries control and a major step in progressively achieving a level playing field on control and management of these pelagic stocks. The agreement is open for the signature of other coastal and fishing states. Greenland, Iceland and the Russian Federation were, regrettably, not in a position to commit to the agreement. However, these coastal states can and are encouraged to join it fully in the future.

The three signatories commit to adopt a number of control measures for these fisheries in order to avoid discards and to monitor the landing and weighing operations. To ensure compliance with the landing obligation, several measures to prevent illegal discards will be mandatory.

Measures such as providing control authorities with real-time access to weighing data and camera surveillance of landing and processing facilities will ensure better control and monitoring of catches. The signatories also agreed, for the first time, a number of measures aimed at ensuring accurate weighing and catch recording. In addition, an ambitious plan to test Remote Electronic Monitoring systems on board fishing vessel, such as cameras and sensors, will be implemented.

The agreement calls for a regular review of the achievements, so that the measures could be enhanced in the future.

More information

Agreed record of conclusions on control measures for pelagic stocks in the North-East Atlantic for 2020

Details