Legislative Observatory
European Parliament
Please fill in this field to find a procedure

Fish stock conservation: multi-annual recovery plan for bluefin tuna in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean

2009/0029(CNS)

PURPOSE: to transpose into Community law the International Convention for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) recommendation establishing a recovery plan for bluefin tuna in the Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean.

LEGISLATIVE ACT: Council Regulation (EC) No 302/2009 concerning a multiannual recovery plan for bluefin tuna in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean, amending Regulation (EC) No 43/2009 and repealing Regulation (EC) No 1559/2007.

CONTENT: the Council adopted a Regulation concerning a multi-annual recovery plan for bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) in the Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean. The plan transposes into Community law the decisions taken in 2008 by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), to which the Community is a contracting party.

The objective of the recovery plan is to achieve a biomass corresponding to the maximum sustainable yield with greater than 50 % probability.

The recovery plan provides for:

  • the establishment of national fisheries plans and the attribution of individual quotas to vessels over 24 metres long;
  • the immediate freeze of fishing capacity of EU fleets at 2007-2008 levels before the establishment of programmes to reduce this capacity;
  • the shortening by four months of the fishing season for purse seiners (15 April-15 June);
  • a ban on the use of aircraft or helicopters for searching for bluefin tuna;
  • the establishment of specific quotas for sports and recreational fishing, chargeable to national quotas;
  • a ban on transferring tuna to farms without the prior authorisation of the fishing vessel's flag state;
  • an obligation to make video recordings during fishing and farming activities available to inspectors;
  • the establishment of a strict control framework for joint fishing operations.

Each Member State shall submit each year by 15 September to the Commission a detailed report on its implementation of the Regulation.

ENTRY INTO FORCE: 18/04/2009.