Conservation of resources: specific access requirements to fishing for deep-sea stocks

In a Commission working paper, the sub-group "fisheries and environment" (SGFEN) of the scientific, technical and economic committee for fisheries examined the problems with deep-sea fishing. The report concerns the following points : 1. reviews and identifies appropriate stock units for management of deep-sea fisheries; 2. describes Community fisheries for deep-sea species in the Mediterranean and Antarctic and in the North East Atlantic areas where new information is available; 3. compiles and updates available data on species landings, species, catch rates, discard rates and species and size composition of deep water fisheries. Temporal trends by area and by species should be reported; 4. identifying sensitive marine habitats that might be affected by deep-sea fisheries. In light of existing scientific evaluations indicate appropriated conservation measures for each stock until in terms of: - restrictions on use of fishing gear (trawl, static gear, type of gear, gear specifications, areas, seasons, etc); - effort restrictions, with appropriate considerations of control measures; - appropriate catch levels. 5. Identify technical interactions between fisheries for deep-sea species and species more traditionally fished on the continental shelf or on the upper part of the slope; 6. Indicate future needs. The NE Atlantic and the Mediterranean differ fundamentally both regarding deep-water/shelf areas and their fisheries. Also regarding the management of problems and approaches to these the two sea areas differ very much. There are therefore treated separately in this report. Due to the lack of experts on EU fisheries in Antarctic waters, these fisheries are not dealt with in this report.�