Conservation of fishery resources through technical measures for the protection of juveniles of marine organisms: conditions

PURPOSE : to amend Regulation 850/998 on the protection of marine juvenile organisms with a view to reinforcing certain technical control measures. CONTENT : on 30 March 1998, the Council of Ministers adopted Regulation 850/98/EC for the conservation of fishery resources through technical measures for the protection of juveniles of marine organisms. In order to ensure the efficiency of these various types of fishing activities and the protection of fish resources, it appeared necessary to clarify or to correct the conditions provided by this Regulation concerning in particular: 1) the calculation of the proportion by live weight of marine organisms on board after sorting or on landing concerning the catches taken by nets of mesh sizes less than 16 millimetres; 2) the installation of square-meshed panels into towed nets of mesh size range 70 to 79 millimetres and the installation of sorting grids into towed nets of mesh size range of 32 to 54 millimetres ; 3) fishing with dredges; 4) the landing of parts of crabs or damaged crabs; 5) ensuring that area-specific minimum size of crabs are duly observed; 6) informing competent control authorities of required information concerning fishing in an area established for the protection of mackerel; 7) the establishment areas and time periods closed to define methods of fishing for the protection of hake; 8) the mesh size for fixed gears to be used when fishing for a variety of species found in the North Sea and adjacent geographical areas; 9) the use of combinations of nets with mesh sizes 16 to 31 millimetres and greater than and equal to 100 millimetres or of 80 to 99 millimetres and equal or greater than 100 millimetres in Regions 1 and 2, with the exception of Skagerrak and Kattegat; 10) the minimum sizes of crawfish, plaice, surfclams and a species of horsemackerel; 11) the measurement of the size of crawfish. These various elements are the objectives of the present proposal which has already been modified six times.�