Multiannual recovery plan for bluefin tuna

SUMMARY OF:

Regulation (EU) 2016/1627 on a multiannual recovery plan for bluefin tuna in the eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean

WHAT IS THE AIM OF THE REGULATION?

It updates the rules of the European Union (EU) on applying the multiannual recovery plan for bluefin tuna in the eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean, which runs from 2007 to 2022, and is recommended by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), an intergovernmental fishery organisation to which the EU is a contracting party.
It replaces and repeals Regulation (EC) No 302/2009.

KEY POINTS

The regulation’s objective is to achieve a biomass* of bluefin tuna corresponding to the maximum sustainable yield by 2022 with at least a 60% probability of achieving that objective.

Each EU Member State must:

ensure that the fishing effort of its catching vessels and its traps are proportionate to the bluefin tuna fishing opportunities (total allowable catches allocated under Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013 — the EU’s common fisheries policy) available to it in the eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean;
submit to the European Commission an annual fishing plan for its vessels and traps and annual fishing capacity and farming management plans that ensure its fishing capacity is in line with its allocated quota.

The regulation contains rules on:

minimum conservation reference sizes (generally, 30 kg or 115 cm fork length, although lower in certain fisheries);
incidental catches (parts of catches which are not targeted) — up to maximum of 5% of bluefin tuna weighing between 8 and 30 kg or with a fork length between 75 and 115 cm;
the use of (prohibited) aerial means, such as aircraft, to search for bluefin tuna;
records of both fishing and non-catching vessels and traps — Member States have to supply these to the Commission each year;
recording requirements — vessels must use logbooks to record information (Annex II, Part A);
designated ports for landing or transhipping bluefin tuna — Member States must send a list of these ports to the Commission each year;
caging operations, their authorisation and inspection;
monitoring and surveillance — vessel monitoring, national observer programmes and the ICCAT regional observer programme;
inspections and cross-checks — the ICCAT joint scheme of international inspection and Member States’ inspection plans;
marketing — trade, landing, import, export, pacing in cages for fattening or farming, re-export and transhipment of bluefin tuna are not permitted in the EU unless accompanied by accurate, complete and validated documentation, as set out in this regulation, Regulation (EU) No 640/2010 and Regulation (EC) No 1936/2001 (see summary);
catches in the cases of sport or recreational fishing:
- no more than one bluefin tuna may be caught per vessel,
- any bluefin tuna landed must be whole, gilled and/or gutted,
- there are measures to be introduced in Member States to ensure the release of bluefin tuna, especially juveniles, caught alive in the course of sport and recreational fishing,
- the sale of bluefin tuna caught during sport and recreational fishing is banned.

Amending Regulation (EU) 2019/833

Regulation (EU) 2019/833 amends Regulation (EU) 2016/1627, requiring Member States:

to draw up an annual fishing capacity management plan to adjust the number of fishing vessels, in order to demonstrate that the fishing capacity is commensurate with the fishing opportunities allocated to the vessels in the relevant time period;
with a bluefin tuna quota, to transmit to the Commission by 31 January each year an annual farming management plan which the Commission then compiles and integrates into the EU plan which must be forwarded to the ICCAT Secretariat by 15 February of each year for discussion and approval by ICCAT;
in their annual farming management plan, to demonstrate that the total input capacity and the total farming capacity are commensurate with the estimated amount of bluefin tuna available for farming;
to make provisions for by-catch of bluefin tuna within their quota and to inform the Commission thereof when transmitting their annual fishing plans.

The amending regulation also sets new rules for fishing seasons for different types of vessels and on the level of by-catches of bluefin tuna (which must not exceed 20% of the total catches on board at the end of each fishing trip). The methodology used to calculate those by-catches, in relation to the total catch on board, must be clearly defined in Member States’ annual fishing plans.

FROM WHEN DOES THE REGULATION APPLY?

It has applied since 6 October 2016.

BACKGROUND

For further information, see:

Bluefin tuna: Council agrees on update of the multiannual recovery plan (Council of the European Union).

KEY TERMS

Biomass. The mass of tuna in a given body of water at a given time.

MAIN DOCUMENT

Regulation (EU) 2016/1627 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 September 2016 on a multiannual recovery plan for bluefin tuna in the eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean, and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 302/2009 (OJ L 252, 16.9.2016, pp. 1–52).

Successive amendments to Regulation (EU) 2016/1627 have been incorporated in the original text. This consolidated version is of documentary value only.

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