Bernard J. Durkan
Question:265 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources the beneficial effect of EU fish conservation policies to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19575/04]
View answerTuesday, 29 June 2004
Questions (265)
Written answers
Under the reformed Common Fisheries Policy, conservation policies are directed towards long-term stock recovery and management plans. These plans aim towards a progressive recovery of certain stocks to a safe biological level over a period of time and may include such elements as limitations on catch and fishing effort, strengthened control and enforcement and seasonal closures. Recovery plans have recently been agreed for certain cod stocks including the Irish Sea and waters to the north-west of Ireland and for northern hake. Two further plans have been proposed by the Commission and further proposals are expected shortly. As these plans are long-term in nature, their effects will not become apparent for some time. However, I am confident that they will succeed in their aims of conserving stocks as they are a multi-faceted and tailored approach to the problem.
I am nonetheless very conscious of the need to develop further measures to assist stock recovery. For this reason, in the context of the Irish Presidency, I launched the environmentally-friendly fishing initiative, which began with a conference in Dundalk in March and culminated with agreement on Council conclusions in Luxembourg last week. The agreed conclusions set out a number of specific work assignments during the next two to three years, in particular, to promote and encourage the achievement of more environmentally-friendly fishing and a resultant conservation dividend.