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7th Administrative Board meeting (13 March)
On 13 March the Administrative Board of the Community Fisheries Control Agency (CFCA) will hold its 7th meeting. Among the decisions to be taken are changes in the budget and the work programme to cater for the Joint Deployment Plan (JDP) for the recovery of blue fin tuna in the Eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea.
The blue fin tuna JDP is the main new initiative of the CFCA in 2008. It is a joint community project in which Member States, the Commission and the CFCA are working closely together. It will mainly concern Member States with a strong interest in the fishery: Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal and Spain. The JDP will organise and co-ordinate control, inspection and surveillance of the bluefin tuna fishery activities at sea and on land, using resources that have been pooled from the participating Member States. The JDP activities will be co-ordinated by a Technical Joint Deployment Group (TJDG), which will be set up in Brussels on 1 April 2008 and remain there until the end of the year.
The Administrative Board will also discuss options for the 2009 work programme of the Agency. The Executive Director has proposed to continue the joint deployment plans for North Sea cod, Baltic Sea cod, blue fin tuna and the joint inspection and surveillance activities adopted under the North-West Atlantic Fisheries Organisation (NAFO), with a possible extension to Western Waters and the North-East Atlantic Fisheries Convention area (NEAFC), which are important fishing areas where there is a need for organizing operational cooperation between Member States concerned. The CFCA should also coordinate control and inspection of imports and landings in Community ports of fishery products originating from IUU fishing activities, organise training for fisheries inspectors and start an evaluation of the effectiveness of the joint deployment plans.
All staff visit Vigo (14-18 March)
The Community Fisheries Control Agency (CFCA) is moving to its seat in the Vigo, Spain, in July 2008. As a preparation for the relocation, all staff of the new agency and their partners will visit Vigo 14-18 March. During this trip the staff will be received, inter alia, by the Xunta de Galicia and the City of Vigo.
Background (14 March)
The decision to establish an EU Fisheries Control Agency was taken under the 2002 reform of the Common Fisheries Policy to strengthen monitoring and control of EU fisheries measures and to help ensure that they are applied uniformly throughout the EU. The Agency will liaise with the stakeholder-led Regional Advisory Councils to secure input from the fisheries sector and other stakeholders, and to help promote a culture of compliance with EU conservation and management measures throughout the EU.
The core activity of the CFCA is operational coordination of pooled national means of control, inspection and surveillance.
The Agency currently has 28 staff members from 12 EU Member States. It will be fully staffed (49 staff members) by the end of 2008.
Among the achievements of the newly created agency are three major coordination tasks carried out in 2007:
- Coordination of EU control, inspection and surveillance activities in the regulatory area of the North Atlantic Fisheries Organisation (NAFO), a task that previously was ensured by the European Commission.
- A Joint Deployment Plan for cod stocks in the North Sea, which started in July 2007 and will continue in 2008. The plan is an innovative and coordinated effort to combat over-fishing and save endangered cod stocks in the North Sea. Resources (inspectors, control vessels, aircraft, etc) were pooled by seven Member States and were deployed where they were most needed, to ensure more effective and uniform control of fishing activities.
- Joint inspection and surveillance campaigns in relation to the long term management plan for cod in the Baltic Sea, which deploy resources that had been pooled by the coastal Member States. The campaigns will continue in 2008.
The Director General of Maritime and Fisheries Affairs of the European Commission, Mr. Joao Aguiar Machado, visited the European Fisheries Control Agency today with a view to have a good insight of the Agency activities and an exchange of ideas on the ongoing projects.
During his visit, the Director General could find out more about the operational activities of the Agency, its systems, the monitoring of the landing obligation and its contribution to the European Coastguard initiative.
Aguiar Machado highlighted the importance of the work of the Agency in assisting the European Commission and bringing Member States to work together to implementing the Common Fisheries Policy. He thanked EFCA staff for its commitment and congratulated them for their valuable work in joining the Coast Guard initiative.
“Your work is an extension of ours in Brussels, we are part of the same project,” said Mr. Aguiar Machado when addressing EFCA staff.
To mark the celebration of the international World Oceans Day, held every year on 8 of June, the agency organised an internal photo contest. The theme of the competition was "Wonders of the Oceans". The photo collage below reflects an arbitrary selection of photos from the finalists of the EFCA Photo Contest 2016.
As previously announced during the celebration of Europe Day, the European Fisheries Control Agency is sponsoring a mural, which main purpose is to highlight the importance of ocean sustainability, in collaboration with the programme of urban art launched by the City Hall of Vigo. The latter is contributing to the project by providing the materials, assembly and machinery.
The works to paint the mural have started this week. The project shares the same goal, that of raising awareness regarding ocean sustainability, as other international programmes such as Sea Walls Murals for Oceans, with whom the Agency has been in contact this year. In this way, the project serves its purpose to emphasize the need to protect our oceans through public art. In addition, the mural aims at making visible the work of the Agency in a city such Vigo, where the ocean plays an important role, as well as building ties with its citizens.
The mural will be located in one of the adjoining walls located closest to the ocean in Torrecedeira street number 4. Due to its European dimension, the project involves artists of three different nationalities: Fernandez & Gonzalez fom Vigo, known for their careers as plastic artists and for revitalising the cultural space of the Halcón Milenario, will paint one of the façades; the Portuguese artist Federico Draw, with recognized expertise in urban art in the neighbouring country and Europe, will bring to life the second façade; in addition, the Irish poet Keith Payne, in partnership with Proyecto Ewa, has written a poem dedicated to the sea which, translated into Galician, will raise the profile of this initiative.
Through this mural, the European Fisheries Control Agency aspires to demonstrate by means of audio-visual communication that art is able to convey the Agency’s ultimate goal, which main mission resides in the coordination of fisheries control: the need to ensure oceans sustainability over time.
Denmark has established a new Real-Time Closure in the North Sea for juvenile fish starting from 13/01/2024 to 02/02/2024 23:59 hrs.
Denmark has established a new Real-Time Closure in the North Sea for juvenile fish starting from 21/01/2024 to 12/03/2024 23:59 hrs.
Denmark has established a new Real-Time Closure in the North Sea starting from 22/02/2024 to 13/03/2024 23:59 hrs.
Denmark has established a new Real-Time Closure in the North Sea starting from 10/03/2024 to 30/03/2024 23:59 hrs.