Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission
Group on Ecosystem-based Sustainable Fisheries
Online meeting, 18 May 2015
Outcome of the 1st
online meeting of Fish
Outcome of the first online meeting of the HELCOM Group on
Ecosystem-based Sustainable Fisheries
In accordance with the Outcome of FISH 2-2015, the first online Meeting of the HELCOM Group on
Ecosystem-based Sustainable Fisheries was held on 18 May 2015. The Meeting was attended by delegations
from Estonia and Finland. List of Participants is attached as Annex 1.
The Meeting was chaired by Mr. Marcin Rucinski, Chair of Fish, and Mr. Dmitry Frank-Kamenetsky, HELCOM
Professional Secretary, and Ms. Petra Kääriä, HELCOM Assisting Professional Secretary, acted as secretaries
of the Meeting.
Agenda Item 1
Adoption of the Agenda
Documents: 1-1
1.1 The Meeting adopted the Agenda of the Meeting as contained in document 1-1.
Agenda Item 2
Presentation of the latest version of the compromise suggestion by the Chair on the
preamble part of the HELCOM draft Recommendation on aquaculture
Documents: 2-1, 2-2, 2-3
2.1 The Meeting took note of the comments received to the compromise preamble by the Chair (documents
2-1 and 2-2) and the final version of the compromise suggestion for the preamble part of the
Recommendation (document 2-3) and agreed on it as included in Annex 2.
2.2 The Meeting took note of the view expressed by Finland that the discharges of hazardous substances and
litter from aquaculture facilities do not seem to remarkably harm the aquatic environment.
Agenda Item 3
Further revision of the text
Documents: none
3.1 The Meeting took note of the comments received by Germany and encouraged Contracting Parties to
prepare accordingly for the HOD 48-2015 and to consider the possibility to lift their study reservations before
the Meeting. The Chair encouraged Contracting Parties to be able to find consensus on the issues still
outstanding and finalize the draft Recommendation in the Meeting in order to move to the work on BAT and
BEP.
Agenda Item 4
Discussion on a new follow-up system for the Baltic Sea Action Plan and other
HELCOM commitments
Documents: none
4.1 The Meeting noted that only few comments have been received to the follow-up system and that they
are generic in nature and took note of further comments by Estonia.
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Outcome of the 1st online meeting of Fish
4.2 The Meeting emphasized the need, expressed by some Contracting Parties, for the Fish Group to have
further time for providing comments and discussing the indicators within the follow-up system and agreed
that Contracting Parties are to provide their comments on the system by 30 June 2015 to the Secretariat
([email protected]) according to the template to be prepared and circulated by the
Secretariat by 21 May 2015 and noted that an online meeting to discuss the comments received could be
organized in early July 2015, if needed.
Agenda Item 5
Any other business
Documents: none
5.1 The Meeting had no other issues to discuss.
Agenda Item 6
Closing of the Meeting
Documents: none
6.1 The outcome of the Meeting is available via the FISH 3-2015 Meeting Site in the HELCOM Meeting Portal.
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Outcome of the first online Meeting of Fish
Annex 1 List of participants
Representing
Chair
Chair
Contracting Parties
Estonia
Finland
HELCOM Secretariat
HELCOM Secretariat
HELCOM Secretariat
Name
Organisation
E-mail address
Marcin Rucinski
Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development
[email protected]
Ulvi Paadam
Heikki Lehtinen
Ministry of the Environment
Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
[email protected]
[email protected]
Dmitry Frank-Kamenetsky HELCOM Secretariat
Petra Kääriä
HELCOM Secretariat
[email protected]
[email protected]
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Outcome of the first online meeting of Fish
Annex 2 Compromise suggestion for the specific preamble part of the
Recommendation as agreed by the online meeting
RECOGNIZING, inter alia, the relevance of direct discharges and losses, nutrients and organic material, from
open‐system marine and fresh water aquaculture, as potential negative impacts on the aquatic environment,
RESPECTING the need to prevent or defeat other possible environmental pressures and their negative
impacts on marine ecosystems that can be associated with aquaculture, such as the introduction of non‐
indigenous species, ecological and genetic impacts on wild fish stocks from unintended releases of farmed
fish, introduction of antibiotics and other pharmaceuticals, as well as hazardous substances and litter
TAKING NOTE OF:




the need for a differentiated approach to specific types of aquaculture production for effective
application of BAT and BEP in fresh water and marine fish farming,
the need to fill, on a sustainable and ecologically sound basis, the growing gap between general
seafood demand and supply,
the need for strengthened regional self-supply with aquaculture products and, hence, reduced
dependency of global imports, in contributing to global responsibility via use of sustainably
developed and managed domestic resources,
the possible supporting role of certain extensive aquaculture systems, particularly freshwater ones,
in habitat conservation, if developed and maintained sustainably,
BEARING IN MIND that aquaculture has globally been the most rapidly growing form of primary food
production during the past 30 years, while it was constant or decreasing in the EU and that the industry's
technological and functional development has been fast; therefore, ENCOURAGING the industry to realize
its great potential to develop and apply environmentally friendly technologies and production methods, both
in marine and fresh water,
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