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Fish stocks: General fisheries technical conservation rules

The existing numerous EU technical conservation rules (a significant number dating back to 1998) are currently being reviewed to make them simpler and easier for both fishermen and enforcement authorities to understand and apply.  They include controls on where and when vessels may fish, the gear they are required to use in particular circumstances, the minimum sizes of fish they are permitted to land and the catch composition requirements they must follow.

The Commission is proposing to replace them with a single regulation which sets the basic requirements for all fishermen, supplemented by a series of regional measures to reflect local fishing conditions.  Individual fishermen should therefore be clearer about the particular rules that apply in their own fisheries.  The Commission has indicated something of the detail it has in mind:

Defra has published guidance on the main EC and UK technical conservation measures. The guidance below has been split into separate pdf files for easier download. Further information is available on our Help page about downloading or reading Adobe Acrobat [PDF] documents.

English version

  • Part 1 - Cover, contents, introduction, UK devolution arrangements, towed gear - mesh sizes (618 KB)
  • Part 2 - Towed gear - mesh size ranges and requirements (64 KB)
  • Part 3 - Towed gear - catch compositions: flexibility during voyage; net geometry and construction; fixed gear; minimum fish landing sizes (general and shellfish) (552 KB)
  • Part 4 - Closed areas, hake recovery plan, annexes (854 KB)

  • Minimum fish landing sizes (136 KB)

The UK Government has commented on (PDF 63 KB) the European Commission’s proposal for a Council Regulation on the conservation of fisheries resources through technical measures.

Page last modified: 04 March 2009
Page published: 04 March 2009