Council Decision (EU) 2019/812Show full title

2. ORIENTATIONS U.K.

The Union shall, where appropriate, endeavour to support the adoption of the following actions by the IATTC and the AIDCP:

(a)

conservation and management measures for fisheries resources in the area based on the best scientific advice available, including the Total Allowable Catches (TACs) and quotas or effort regulation for living marine biological resources regulated by the IATTC, which would bring or maintain the achievement of the maximum sustainable yield exploitation rate at the latest by 2020. Where necessary, those conservation and management measures shall include specific measures for stocks, which suffer from overfishing to keep the fishing effort in line with available fishing opportunities;

(b)

measures to prevent, deter and eliminate illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing activities in the Convention area, including IUU vessel listing;

(c)

measures to reinforce fisheries' scientific data collection and promote better cooperation between the industry and scientists;

(d)

monitoring, control and surveillance measures in the Antigua Convention area, including the adoption of Port State Measures (PSM) and the strengthening of the Vessel Monitoring System (VMS), in order to ensure efficiency of control and compliance with measures adopted within the IATTC;

(e)

measures to minimise the negative impact of fishing activities on marine biodiversity and marine ecosystems and their habitats, including measures to reduce marine pollution and prevent the discharge of plastics at sea and reduce the impact on marine biodiversity and ecosystems of plastics present at sea, protective measures for sensitive marine ecosystems in the Antigua Convention area in line with the UNGA Resolutions, and measures to avoid and reduce as far as possible unwanted catches, including in particular vulnerable marine species, and to gradually eliminate discards;

(f)

measures to manage the use of fish aggregating devices (FADs) notably to improve collection of data, to accurately quantify, track and monitor FADs use, to reduce impact on vulnerable tuna stocks, to mitigate their potential effects on target and non-target species, as well as on the ecosystem;

(g)

measures to reduce the impact of Abandoned, Lost or Otherwise Discarded Fishing Gear (ALDFG) in the ocean and to facilitate the identification and recovery of such gear and to reduce the contribution to marine debris;

(h)

measures to reinforce the compliance monitoring system in the organisation and ensure the effective follow-up of actions taken by flag states to address non-compliance issues;

(i)

measures aimed at the prohibition of fisheries conducted solely for the purpose of harvesting shark fins and, to require that all sharks be landed with all fins naturally attached;

(j)

common approaches with other RFMOs, where appropriate, in particular those involved in fisheries management in the same area;

(k)

additional technical measures based on advice from the bodies and working groups of the IATTC and the Meeting of the Parties to the AIDCP;

(l)

progressive reduction of incidental dolphin mortalities in the tuna purse-seine fishery to level approaching zero and regular dolphin population assessments;

(m)

recommendations, where appropriate and to the extent permitted under the relevant constituent documents, encouraging the implementation of the Work in Fishing Convention of the International Labour Organisation (ILO);

(n)

measures to ensure the efficiency of the organisation including the undertaking of regular performance reviews of the organisation.