Article 47.

I may be wrong but you might find that RSA in say Italy is going out in a boat with a net and catching a lot of Blue fin Tuna then taking it ashore and selling it. Other European countries have a similar definition of RSA it is this community I understand that Article 47 was geared for, in other words the definition of RSA had to clarified before we were all tarred with the same brush. I do hope it is not spin, as the words used seem quite specific for our definition of RSA. My understanding is we have the Irish to thank.
My glass is half full
 
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47

47

After reading the article headed "WORDS OF WARNING" in the March issue of Total Sea Fishing magazine. I followed the words of advise and contacted the given address UK Independence Party and signed the petition.
I then went on to e-mail Fiona Hall MEP and Stephen Hughes MEP requesting that they act to have article 47 deleted.Below are their replies.

From Stephen Hughes.
Re:Community control system for ensuring compliance with the rules of the Common Fisheries Policy and recreational angling.
Thank you for your email letting me know about your concern that article 47 of the control requlation may bring recreational anglers within the scope of the CFP and its quota regime.
The EPLP fisheries spokesperson Catherine Stihler,MEP,shares your concerns of the scope of article 47,what kind of anglers it applies to,and practicalities of this proposal and will support its deletion.Within the European Parliament a timetable has now been set with the vote in commitee on 31 March and the final plenary vote during the week starting 20 April.
I hope this information is helpful.
Yours sincerley
Stephen Hughes.

Reply from Fiona Hall MEP.
Thank you for your email about article 47 of the Control Regulation.i share your concerns over this.
Unfortunately,the Article is not clearly drafted,but as far as I can understand it the European Commission intends it to apply only where there is a multi-annual (recovery)plan,for stocks outside safe biological limits,such as with cod and blue fin tuna and where the fishing is done from onboard a vessel.This means that it would not affect most recreational sea fisheries including any done from onshore,or angling on inland waters.
As I understand it, the Commission's concern is with the substantial amounts that are caught by some recreational fisheries in relation to the species covered by the multi annual recovery plans.Foe example, it is estimated that in Italy(2007),800 tonnes of blue fin tuna were caught by recreational fishers whilst the national quota is around 4,300 tonnes.On my reading,too, the Article is intended to prevent commercial fishing under the guise of recreational fishing.
That said Article 47 sets a precedent of which we should be very wary.My Liberal Democrat colleauge Elspeth Attwooll sits on the Fisheries Committee in the European Parliament.She assures me that this point has already been raised with some force in the course of deliberations in the committee.Elspeth says it is clear the there will be amendments from committee members asking for the Article to be deleted from the proposal or.failing that amended very substantially indeed.I should add though, that under the current procedures, the Parliament can only give an opinion and the final decision is taken by the Council of Fisheries Ministers.So it would be useful ,too for youu to make the goverment directly aware of your views on the issue.
Thank you once again for contacting me on this important matter
Yours sincerely
Fiona Hall MEP.

Can't say I didn't try,so where do I collect my brownie points from?
 
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Just recieved this email...good news I hope

Dear Mr Morton,

Further to your email, I am writing to inform you of some significant developments regarding Article 47 (monitoring of recreational fisheries). Following intense lobbying, Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg informed the Fisheries Committee (in the European Parliament) yesterday that he had no intention of bringing recreational fishermen under the scope of the CFP.

The Commissioner was very clear in ruling out any extension to "recreational anglers who catch a few kilos of fish, even recovery stocks like cod, and take it home for their own use." He went on to promise that he would fine tune Article 47 so that it only targets sea anglers who catch and sell recovery stocks for profit.

I hope this news will alleviate your initial concern and I will continue to monitor the situation to ensure that the Commissioner keeps to his word.

Yours sincerely,

Martin Callanan MEP
Conservative
North East England
 
Just recieved this email...good news I hope
The Commissioner was very clear in ruling out any extension to "recreational anglers who catch a few kilos of fish, even recovery stocks like cod, and take it home for their own use."

Note that he leaves it wide open for bag limits and quotas, though.
 
It would seem a revised article 47 has been issued.

From

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/...EN&language=EN

Original
1. Recreational fisheries on a vessel in Community waters on a stock subject to a multiannual plan shall be subject to an authorisation for that vessel issued by the flag Member State.

Amendment
1. Non-Commercial Fisheries conducted from a vessel in Community marine waters on a stock subject to a multiannual plan shall be evaluated by the Member State in whose waters they are conducted.
Fishing with rod and reel from shore shall not be included.

Original
2. Catches in recreational fisheries on stocks subject to a multiannual plan shall be registered by the flag Member State.

Amendment
2. Within two years of the date of entry into force of this Regulation, Member States shall estimate the impact of Non-Commercial Fisheries conducted in their waters and submit the information to the Commission. The relevant Member State and the Commission, on the basis of the advice of the Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries, shall decide which Non-Commercial Fisheries
are having a significant impact on stocks.
Within three years of the date of entry into force of this Regulation, that Member State, in close cooperation with the Commission, shall develop a monitoring system for fisheries having a significant impact that includes licences and a means of accurately estimating the total catches for each fish stock. Non-Commercial Fisheries shall comply with the objectives of the Common Fisheries Policy.

Original
3. Catches of species subject to a multiannual plan by recreational fisheries shall be counted against the relevant quotas of the flag Member State. The Member States concerned shall establish a share
from such quotas to be used exclusively for the purpose of recreational fisheries.

Amendment
3. Catches of species subject to a monitoring system under paragraph 2 shall be counted against the relevant quotas of the flag Member State. The Member States concerned may establish a share from such quotas to be used exclusively for the purpose of recreational fisheries.

New
(7a) "Non-Commercial Fisheries" means any fisheries in marine waters including, inter alia, sports fishing, recreational fishing and tournaments, conducted from a vessel which is not required to have a Community fishing licence pursuant to Commission Regulation (EC) No 1281/2005 of 3 August 2005 on the management of fishing licences and the minimal information to be contained therein1

The term "non-commercial fishing" is clearer than the term"recreational fishing" and should be defined to avoid confusion.

I have just had a quick look at this but it may mean

• hake, cod, plaice, eel, and sole are to be included for consideration

• Assessments made by UK governments on RSA catches of these species within two years

• Then Scientists/commission will decide which RSA captures are considered to be having a significant impact on stocks

• After three years monitoring system in place including licenses and perhaps logbooks for those species we are considered to be having a significant impact on stocks

• RSA catches on those species above shall be included in member states quota system

• The Member States concerned shall establish a share from such quotas to be used exclusively for the purpose of recreational fisheries.


More items for consideration. The above text includes comments from "someone" who when I have spoken to him I will post his name.

Cheers
dave
 
Conservative Press Release:

Shadow Fisheries Minister raises Article 47 with EU Commissioner.

Shadow Fisheries Minister, Richard Benyon, held a meeting with EU Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg. The meeting was hosted by Conservative Fisheries Spokesman in the European Parliament Straun Stevenson. Also at the meeting was Jimmy Buchan, the Skipper of Amity II which featured in the recent "Trawlermen" series on BBC1. Jimmy is the Conservative Candidate for Banff and Buchan.

Over one and a half hour meeting Richard raised the issue of the Article 47 and the desire by the Commission to include the recreational catch in national quota. Richard told the Commissioner that there was a sense of relief that the Commission was back tracking on the original proposal. However more needed to be done.

Richard said,
"I told the Commissioner that the 1.1m UK anglers are still fearful of this measure. There are coastal towns that need the income sea anglers bring, much of it in the off season. It is just not workable to imagine small boat owners having to register, pay a fee and declare the few fish taken for the pot. We need sea anglers for the income they bring to coastal Britain and for the knowledge they have of what species are in good supply and what are in short supply. I am delighted that the Commissioner agreed to my suggestion that he meet a delegation from the Angling Trust in the near future"

Richard also attended the EU Parliament's Fisheries Committee and saw Struan Stevenson's amendment pass which ensures a level of national discretion in the implementation of this measure. Richard also noted how useless UKIP have been on an issue they have made much on in the press. Not one amendment had been tabled by the UKIP representative to the Committee.
 
Nothing new in the response to the petition, boat anglers as we knew may be affected
" Member States are though required to monitor such catches by way of a sampling plan".

"Before Article 55 of Regulation 1224/2009 (previously Article 47) is implemented further detailed rules must be adopted. These will be negotiated in the coming months and will include agreement on the form the sampling plans must take. The UK Government will look for rules that allow it flexibility to target its efforts in those areas and on those vessels likely to be having the greatest impact on threatened fish stocks, but which do so in a way that will not place undue burdens on the vast majority of recreational sea anglers.

The UK Government will consult stakeholders, including angling representatives, before finalising its national arrangements"

Another consultation, how many times do RSA have to repeat themselves.
Some mixed messages coming out of Europe, this being one of them, Laugh well you just have to,even better if you can be bothered to watch her on youtube.

Commissioner's sea angling pledges to 'farcical' hearing 'worthless'
A PLEDGE by EUfisheries
commissioner Maria Damanaki
during her confirmation hearings
before the European Parliament's
fisheries committee that there
would be "no community
regulation of recreational sea
angling" has been branded
worthless. This follows her
promise in a newspaper
interview just weeks later that
"no fishery, not even leisure
fishing, will be unregulated".
Statements regarding the
monitoring of leisure fishing
were equally misleading, it is
claimed, as she told MEPs that
the effect on stocks was already
factored in by experts, while
she told Fishing News (FN 12
February) that this process was
"just starting".
UKIP MEP Nigel Farage,
a member of the fisheries
committee, said that she
"appeared to be prepared to
say whatever she thought the
audience immediately in front
of her wanted to hear".
He said: "To MEPs, she said
there would be no regulation,
and the effect of leisure fishing
was already accounted for.
To commercial fishermen via
Fishing News, she said that
there would be regulation of
leisure fishing, and that the'
effect was not yet accounted for.
"Which of these two
contradictory statements is true?
She has reduced the debate to a
farce and demonstrated that she
simply can't be trusted.
"More worrying is the
idea that the collection of
data, which she told MEPs
she already had, was in fact
just beginning. Charter boat
skippers and even individual
anglers will face mountains of
paperwork to account for days
at sea and catches landed.
"Clearly this is the thin
end of the wedge, and
where draconian reporting
requirements are put in place,
equally draconian regulation
will be sure to follow. For sea
anglers, this can only cause
serious problems."
Ms Damanaki's statement
to the European Parliament
fisheries committee can be
viewed at: http://www.youtube.
comjwatch?v=a UYrj-mj Iu4

Les
 
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