On 24 September the North Western Waters Advisory Council (NWWAC) launched its 2021 NWWAC Fisheries Management Chart at the virtual meeting of its General Assembly.
The NWWAC Fisheries Management Chart depicts the NWWAC remit area and collates various management measures that fishers in the North Western Waters have to comply with on a daily basis. These management measures are a broad set of rules that govern how, where and when fishers may fish.
Information useful for fishery activities in the North Western Waters is presented in a user-friendly format and includes measures to achieve the objectives of the Common Fishery Policy, such as closures of areas and details on the obligation to land all catches which has been introduced in 2015 and has been fully in force since January 2019 in order to contribute to the selectivity objective.
Of particular interest to fishers in the North Western Waters are the TACs and Quotas relating to the 51 fish stocks within the scope of the NWWAC. These are included as a table detailing the species, area, the EU identification code and the EU TAC for 2021.
Additional information of interest to fisheries management in the North Western Waters is also included in the form of several smaller maps. These include:
Fishing effort
Nephrops Functional Units
Fishing rights in the 6 – 12 mile zones
Information on the Channel Islands
An overview of offshore wind farm projects both in operation and under construction, as well as in the various stages of planning
The NEAFC regulatory area and fishery management regions
The chart also reflects the changes following Brexit by clearly distinguishing UK wasters from EU waters.
The NWWAC Fisheries Management Chart 2021 has been developed with the support of Bord Iascaigh Mhara, Ireland’s Seafood Development Agency, and is available in the NWWAC’s three working languages (English, French, Spanish) in print and as a pdf file which can be found on the NWWAC’s website www.nwwac.org under “Publications”.
ENDS
For further information contact Mo Mathies, Executive Secretary, NWWAC, Tel: +353 1 2144 143, Email: mo.mathies@nwwac.ie.
EDITORS NOTE
North Western Waters Advisory Council
The North Western Waters Advisory Council (NWWAC) is a representative EU fisheries stakeholder body which is legally recognised as an organisation pursuing an aim of general European interest. It is established in Ireland and produces regular advice on its own initiative or at the request of the European Commission and the concerned Member States on all relevant matters related to fisheries management in the EC offshore waters within the EEZ of Ireland, part of the United Kingdom and France (ICES areas 6 and 7).
Essentially, the NWWAC is an open forum for dialogue between the fishing sector (both industrial and small-scale fleets, with representatives of catching and processing sectors and trade unions) and other groups of interest, including environmental NGOs, consumers representatives, recreational anglers and civil society.
The NWWAC is one of eleven Advisory Councils established under the Common Fisheries Policy, advising on, the Baltic Sea; Mediterranean Sea; North Sea; South-Western Waters; Pelagic stocks; High seas/long distant water fleets; Black Sea; Aquaculture; Markets and Outermost Regions.