Denmark has established a new Real-Time Closure (RTC) in their waters of The Skagerrak :
For the period from the 22 of March 2023 to the 11 of April 2023 23:59 hrs (See more Information).
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Denmark has established a new Real-Time Closure (RTC) in their waters of The Skagerrak :
For the period from the 22 of March 2023 to the 11 of April 2023 23:59 hrs (See more Information).
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The CFCA has adopted its sixth work programme for 2012, the first one within the mandate of his new Executive Director and has elected a new Chairman. Moreover, the budget adopted in the meeting for 2012 is of €9,31million, subject to the definitive adoption of the EU Budget for 2012 by the Budgetary Authority in the coming weeks.
Election of Chairman
Jörgen Holmquist, an economist from Sweden, has been elected the new Chairman of CFCA Administrative Board. After top level positions within the Swedish national administration, he has been Director General of Fisheries and Maritime Affairs and Director General of Internal Market and Services of the European Commission.
2012 Work Programme
In 2012, the Agency will focus on its core business and the potential of Member States to apply the EU fisheries control rules in a uniform and effective manner. Moreover, it will contribute to a level playing field by implementing regional joint deployment plans based on specific and control and inspection programmes. All in all, these tasks are essential so as to promote sustainable exploitation of marine living resources and Integrated Maritime Policy.
The Agency will carry on doing the coordination work it has been doing in important fisheries such as cod in the Baltic Sea and in the North Sea and Western Waters; bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean and Eastern Atlantic, Pelagic in Western Waters and NAFO and NEAFC Regulatory Area. In addition, it will progressively extend this cooperation to regional joint deployment plans based on multispecies, and it will continue to support the fight against IUU fishing.
In 2012, the Agency will assist the Commission and Member States in the cooperation with third countries within the JDP areas. In addition, the JDP for pelagic fisheries in Western Waters of the North East Atlantic will continue. It will be the first one carried out in a continuous and permanent manner and applied to a multispecies fishery and will serve as a first experience on the concept of regional joint deployment plans based on multispecies. This approach may also offer synergies for saving on public expenditures of Member States concerned by several Member States.
In helping to build the control and inspection capacities of Member States, the Agency will facilitate the elaboration of core curricula for training of national fisheries inspectors, promote the exchange of best practices and develop harmonised standards of inspection. It will also foster Integrated Maritime Surveillance in cooperation with the European Commission, Member States and other EU agencies. Indeed, Maritime Surveillance data and data management systems developed for the Agency for its operational requirements will contribute to improve synergies, efficiency and cost effectiveness.
“Now that the 2012 work programme of the Agency has been adopted by the Board, it is my commitment to ensure its effective execution. My team and I will work hard in the contribution that the Agency makes to fair competition and ultimately to a sustainable exploitation of marine resources,” said Pascal Savouret, CFCA Executive Director.
The European Fisheries Control Agency and the European Environment Agency have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to improve the exchange of expertise and relevant information between the two EU Agencies. The cooperation will enhance the coordination and implementation of their activities and to ensure the promotion of joint activities.
The areas of particular interest for cooperation between include information and expertise sharing, with a view to exchange information and build knowledge, e.g. on multiple pressures and cumulative impacts of maritime activities, Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), Fisheries Restricted Areas (FRAs), risk assessment, zero pollution and marine litter.
The cooperation also caters for the implementation of operational pilot projects at sea in areas of common interest, as the project dedicated to marine litter, and particularly, the monitoring, retrieval, collection, and recycling of abandoned or lost fishing gear in designated maritime areas.
While no delegation or transfer of any task or responsibilities will be made from one agency to the other, this memorandum of understanding comes in an important moment in which the Commission has issued the Fisheries and Oceans Pact towards sustainable, science-based, innovative and inclusive fisheries management.
Denmark has established a new Real-Time Closure (RTC) in their waters of The Skagerrak :
For the period from the 24 of March 2023 to the 13 of April 2023 23:59 hrs (See more Information).
Denmark has established two Real-Time Closures (RTCs) in their waters of The Skagerrak :
For the period from the 29 of March 2023 to the 18 of April 2023 24:00 hrs (See more Information).
Sweden has established a Real-Time Closure (RTC) for Northern prawn fisheries in their waters of The Skagerrak. An inspection has revealed that the amount of juvenile prawns is found to be too high.
The information as per procedure on the fish juvenile RTC is following:
Real Time Closure - Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management (havochvatten.se)
Denmark has established a Real Time Closure in the context of Commission Regulation (EC) no 724/2010. Further details can be found on the Danish website.
RTC closures are published by the Member States and the relevant announcements are now centralised at this link.
To learn more about Real Time Closures in the North Sea and Skagerrak, watch the newly released EFCA Video animation.
Denmark has established two Real-Time Closures (RTCs) in their waters of The Skagerrak :
During its meeting held in Vigo, EFCA Administrative Board adopted the Annual Report reflecting all the activities undertaken by the EFCA last year.
In 2022, the European Fisheries Control Agency supported the Member States and the Commission in the effective and harmonised implementation of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). The activities spanned from the operational coordination of fisheries control across the EU, to tasks related to the international obligations of the Union, and from the assistance to Member States to improve the culture of compliance with the CFP, to the European Cooperation on Coast Guard functions.
These were the main highlights:
In the international dimension of the Common Fisheries Policy, EFCA continued to assist the European Commission in the fight against Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported (IUU) fishing activities, and to cooperate with third countries and international organisations dealing with fisheries, such as Regional Fisheries Management Organisations (namely, NAFO, NEAFC, ICCAT and GFCM).
In the framework of the six-year EU funded PESCAO project, including a component aiming to improve the fight against IUU fishing activities in Western Africa, EFCA continued to provide technical assistance to the Sub-Regional Fisheries Commission (SRFC), the Fisheries Committee for the Western Central Gulf of Guinea (FCWC) and their member countries, in a coordinated manner, using the experience gained in the EU context.
Supporting national authorities carrying out Coast Guard Functions, EFCA led a project assigned by the European Commission to update the Practical Handbook on European Cooperation on Coast Guard Functions, which included the follow-up of the European Coast Guard Functions Academies Network Project (ECGFA-Net) and a dedicated Portal for the EU Coast Guard cooperation with the other maritime Agencies, EMSA and Frontex.
Another important area in EFCA’s work is training, as a capacity building tool. Training activities are crucial to guarantee a fair and equitable treatment to the Union operators. Last year 2 967 officials were trained, including by e-learning.
EFCA’s chartered Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPVs), the Lundy Sentinel, Aegis and, since December 2022, the Ocean Sentinel, provided a robust platform for fisheries inspections. The EFCA chartered OPVs contributed to the implementation of JDPs in the EU sea basins by adding capacity to fisheries control operations outside the territorial waters of the MS. They were also a platform to deploy multinational inspection teams, including inspectors from Third Countries. This promoted transparency, a level playing field for the fishing industry and fostered a good exchange of knowledge and expertise.
In relation to EFCA’s information systems, these ones enabled the collection of data from each Member State providing details of their fishing vessels, catches and other such information. Overall, EFCA received Electronic Reporting System (ERS)-logbook data from 6 109 vessels from 12 Member States and Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) data from vessels, throughout all Member States concerned by JDPs.
The EFCA IMS application was used by a large community of Member States users as a support to fisheries control and activities against IUU fishing.
““I would like to take this opportunity to thank sincerely EFCA staff for their excellence and professionalism. Also, I want to thank the Member States and the European Commission for their trust in me in the important task we have ahead. This is an agency committed to move forward towards the vision of a sustainable future for our oceans,” said Susan Steele, EFCA Executive Director.
Belgium has established a new Real-Time Closure (RTC) in their waters of the North Sea for juvenile fish:
For the period from the 24 of April 2023 to the 15 of May 2023 23:59 hrs (See more Information).