Persistent overfishing in European seas led to the decline of many fish species in the 1990s. However, efforts to restore hake populations to sustainable levels in recent decades have proven successful.
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00:00In the specific case of the Merluza Norte, what happened is that both the Commission and the Member States were able to react more or less in time.
00:13There were still possibilities to recover it.
00:15In this case, emergency measures were adopted in 2001, while a recovery management plan was adopted in 2004.
00:24This plan included, among other things, technical measures, such as increases in the mesh light, which is the light, the hole of the fishing nets,
00:32to reduce the mortality of juveniles, of the smallest individuals.
00:36It also included reductions in the capture limits, a very important measure to reduce this mortality by fishing.
00:41And another measure, for example, was the closure or fishing restrictions in certain areas that are essential for fish.
00:48I mean areas where fish reproduce or where juveniles breed and fatten.
00:56The control of both the activity at sea and the disembarkation at the port was greatly improved.
01:04And finally, which is not to be underestimated, would be the issue of environmental conditions.
01:09In other words, there was also some luck, and it can be said in this way, since the oceanic conditions at sea were conducive to promote the recruitment of the population,
01:18that the new young individuals would become part of what is the biomass or the total abundance of individuals at sea.
01:25These three measures, as we said, both the technical measures and the control measures, as in this case the oceanic conditions,
01:32were the ones that really triggered a recovery of the biomass and the abundance of the Merluza Norte in the Atlantic.
01:39Music