Council Decision (EU) 2019/862Show full title

2. ORIENTATIONS U.K.

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

a)

conservation and management measures for fisheries resources in the WCPF Convention area based on the best scientific advice available, including Total Allowable Catches (TACs) and quotas, fishing effort or fishing capacity measures for living marine biological resources regulated by the WCPFC, 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 pressure 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 WCPF Convention area in order to ensure efficiency of control and compliance with measures adopted within the WCPFC;

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 WCPF Convention area in line with the WCPF Convention, 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 aimed at the prohibition of fisheries conducted solely for the purpose of harvesting shark fins and requiring that all sharks are landed with all fins naturally attached;

i)

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);

j)

additional technical measures based on advice from the subsidiary bodies and working groups of the WCPFC.