Integration fisheries-environment, ministerial meeting, March 1997, Bergen. 2nd report on implementation

PURPOSE: to report on the implementation of the Statement of Conclusions from the Intermediate Ministerial Meeting on the Integration of Fisheries and Environmental Issues, 13-14 March 1997 in Bergen. CONTENT: The report is structured in a similar way as the one that was produced by the Commission in 1998. Like its predecessor, this report does not elaborate on the sections called Guiding Principles, Management Objectives and Strategies. The report deals with the Section called Actions, which makes up the larger part of the Statement of Conclusions and which most directly addresses the competent authorities. Generally, this report is concerned with actions taken at Community level, it does not contain extensive information on action taken by individual Member States. The report covers the following nine headings: - Rebuilding or maintenance of spawning stock biomass (adoption of a precautionary approach to fisheries management); - Reduction of fishing fleet capacity and/or deployed fishing effort (introduction of multi-annual guidance programmes - MAGPs); - Protection of juvenile fish, crustaceans and molluscs (e.g. establishment of boxes to protect aggregations of juvenile specimens, use of ranges of mesh sizes, etc.); - Protection of species and habitats (the combination of the yearly TACs/quotas-regulation, the technical measures regulation and the MAGPs are all aimed at reducing and controlling fishing mortality rates, plus other specific measures for the overall protection of species and habitats of Community interest); - Protection from activities other than fisheries (e.g. Commission is preparing a list of priority substances und the draft Water Framework Directive); - Control and enforcement (in 1998, the control system applicable to the Common Fisheries Policy was thoroughly reviewed. In 1999, several initiatives were to enter into force: enhanced cooperation between fisheries control, inspection and surveillance authorities, enhanced transparency, more autonomy for the Commission's fisheries inspectors, and enhanced monitoring of third country vessels' landings in the Community); - Science, technology and economic impacts (e.g. Commission to give priority to funding experimental projects that are concerned with the utility of square-meshed panels or other devices for increasing the selectivity of towed gears); - Information and involvement (series of meetings on a regional basis on management of certain fisheries involving industry, scientists and economists); and - Further integration of fisheries and environmental policies (e.g. the Commission has requested the Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries to set up a work programme for research activities on the biological impact of fisheries, various international developments as regards the concept of the precautionary approach).�