NEAFC Permanent Committee on Management and Science 2020

12 October 2020

The annual meeting of the North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC) Permanent Committee on Management and Science 2020 (PECMAS) met in a virtual setting. The meeting addressed regular tasks in receiving and considering scientific advice from ICES with a view of preparing recommendations to the NEAFC Annual Meeting.

The OSPAR Secretariat presented an update of work in OSPAR on topics which had been identified as being of interest to both organisations at the 5th meeting under the collective arrangement. This included updates on discussions on OSPAR NEAES 2030, the ongoing work on the proposed ‘North Atlantic Current and Evlanov Seamount MPA’, and considerations on OECMs.

OSPAR also informed that the BDC meeting in October had welcomed the delivery of advice from ICES to the joint advice request by NEAFC and OSPAR on deep-sea elasmobranchs. Further technical discussions would be undertaken at OSPAR ICG-POSH 2020 in December with a view of preparing for further joint discussions at the next meeting of the collective arrangement.

Regular representation by the respective Secretariats at the meetings of OSPAR and NEAFC is very beneficial in bringing awareness to active discussions of mutual interest.

Delegates on NEAFC PECMAS proposed to consider topics where they feel OSPAR could tackle issues of interest to NEAFC outside conservation of specific species, such as topics around marine litter or hazardous substances in biota.

NEAFC and OSPAR will continue to exchange information about topics of mutual interest. Bilateral discussions are needed to prepare for the next meeting of the collective arrangement. NEAFC expressed a preference for delaying the meeting until it would be possible to organise a physical meeting to allow for the valuable interaction of delegates at the meeting.