Advice and Recommendations - The Pelagic Advisory Council

The Pelagic AC provides credible, scientific, and consensus-based advice to inform pelagic fisheries policy, both upon the request of the European Commission and Member States, and on its own initiative. All advice and recommendations are developed and approved by the members of the Pelagic AC.

Our advice — and responses to it — may be accessed below.

Name	Summary	Year	Downloads
Southern Horse Mackerel management plan	In Autumn 2020, the Pelagic AC convened a Southern horse mackerel Focus Group (SHOM FG) together with the SWWAC and discussed proposed amendments to the agreed LTMS. It was proposed during the meeting that the established target year to reach Fmsy within the strategy – the year 2025 – be amended to a target year of 2022, in order to bring the fishing opportunities based on the LTMS more swiftly in line with those based on the ICES MSY advice. Following a second meeting of the SHOM FG between the PelAC and the SWWAC on the 18th May where this decision was endorsed, the Pelagic AC informed the Commission of this single amendment – to Article 5.1 of the management strategy – which had been agreed on a consensus basis. The PelAC requested the Commission to urgently convey the revised LTMS to ICES so that it could be included for consideration in the WGHANSA meeting on 24th-28th May 2021. The PelAC was surprised by the response from the Commission, indicating it would stick to ICES top-line advice on the basis of MSY, as its ‘legal basis’. The PelAC feels this is regrettable considering the amount of effort that the PelAC puts in developing management strategies/rebuilding plans, and will seek further clarification moving forward.	2021	Letter to Commission on agreed amendment to SHOM long-term management strategy Commission response Commission response Letter to Commission on clarification for TAC 2022 SHOM recommendation
Fishing opportunities 2022	The Pelagic AC provides recommendations on TACs in 2022 for stocks under its remit.	2021	Fishing opportunities 2022

Name

Summary

Year

Southern Horse Mackerel management plan

In Autumn 2020, the Pelagic AC convened a Southern horse mackerel Focus Group (SHOM FG) together with the SWWAC and discussed proposed amendments to the agreed LTMS. It was proposed during the meeting that the established target year to reach Fmsy within the strategy – the year 2025 – be amended to a target year of 2022, in order to bring the fishing opportunities based on the LTMS more swiftly in line with those based on the ICES MSY advice. Following a second meeting of the SHOM FG between the PelAC and the SWWAC on the 18th May where this decision was endorsed, the Pelagic AC informed the Commission of this single amendment – to Article 5.1 of the management strategy – which had been agreed on a consensus basis. The PelAC requested the Commission to urgently convey the revised LTMS to ICES so that it could be included for consideration in the WGHANSA meeting on 24th-28th May 2021.

The PelAC was surprised by the response from the Commission, indicating it would stick to ICES top-line advice on the basis of MSY, as its ‘legal basis’. The PelAC feels this is regrettable considering the amount of effort that the PelAC puts in developing management strategies/rebuilding plans, and will seek further clarification moving forward.

2021

Letter to Commission on agreed amendment to SHOM long-term management strategy Commission response Commission response Letter to Commission on clarification for TAC 2022 SHOM recommendation

Fishing opportunities 2022

The Pelagic AC provides recommendations on TACs in 2022 for stocks under its remit.

2021

Fishing opportunities 2022