EN Official Journal of the European Union CE 78/552

(2004/C 78 E/0587)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3455/03

by Elspeth Attwooll (ELDR) to the Commission

(20 November 2003)

Subject: Community Action Plan to protect seabirds from longline fishing

What urgency is the Commission giving to fulfilling its commitment in the reform of the CFP to propose legislation before the end of this year to implement its Community Action Plan to protect seabirds from longline fishing in the context of the FAO International Plan of Action?

Will the Commission propose such legislation without further delay and present a finalised plan to the next session of FAO-COFI in 2005?

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission

(8 January 2004)

As the Honourable Member might be aware, the Community already presented a draft preliminary action plan to protect seabirds from longline fishing at the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Committee in 2001. The FAO action plan does not foresee any specific calendar. However, the Commission would like to present the follow-up of the draft preliminary plan to the next Committee on Fisheries (COFI) in 2005. For this purpose, the Commission will have to work further with Member States, as the protection of seabirds is a shared competence with Member States.

As the Honourable Member must also know, the incidental catches of seabirds constitute a threat within Community waters for several birds included in Annex I of the Directive 79/409/EEC (1).

However, the main problems seem to be caused by non-Community vessels fishing either in international waters or in their own waters. The Community has no direct legal power to control the activities of non-Community vessels in these areas.

The main concerns related to albatrosses and other species, essentially in the Southern Oceans.

To tackle those problems, the Community has already incorporated the following mitigation measures into Community legislation (2):

— Using bird-scaring line with plastic streamers attached;

— Weighting the lines so that they sink faster and pose less risk;

— Prohibiting the discharge of offal at sea, which attracts seabirds to the lines;

— Setting the longlines at night, when albatrosses and other seabirds are less likely to be foraging;

— Using only thawed bait.

These measures, which are compulsory for Community fishing companies, have been drawn up by the Council for the Conservation of Antarctic Maríne Living Resources (CCAMLR), which deals with Antarctic waters, and of which the Community is a contracting party.

As the Community is already implementing this Community Regulation, new legislation to protect seabirds from longline fishing before 2004 is not currently foreseen.

Furthermore, based on a Community initiative, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) has adopted the recommendation 02-14 related to seabirds protection. This is indeed the first measure in the ICCAT area to tackle this matter.

(1) Council Directive 79/409/EEC of 2 April 1979 on the conservation of wild birds, OJ L 103, 25.4.1979.

(2) Council Regulation (EC) No 2479/98 of 12 November 1998 amending Regulation (EC) No 66/98 laying down certain conservation and control measures applicable to fishing activities in the Antarctic, OJ L 309, 19.11.1998.