Participants

 

The International Baltic Sea Fishery Commission is composed of "Members" and "Observers"

Members of the IBSFC

The Convention on Fishing and Conservation of the Living Resources in the Baltic Sea and the Belts (the Gdansk Convention), establishing the International Baltic Sea Fishery Commission, was signed on the 13th September 1973 by the Governments of the Republic of Finland, the Kingdom of Denmark, the German Democratic Republic, the federal Republic of Germany, the Polish People's Republic, the Kingdom of Sweden and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics: the seven founding Members.

The pattern of membership of the Commission changed following the accession of the European Economic Community to the Convention on the 18th March 1984, with the simultaneous withdrawal of Denmark and the Federal Republic of Germany. To allow for membership of the European Community, Article XVII of the Convention was amended, authorising States and "intergovernmental economic integration organizations" to accede.

The unification of Germany in 1990 reduced the number of Contracting Parties to five.

In 1992, the Republic of Estonia, the Republic of Latvia and the Republic of Lithuania acceded to the Convention.

Most recently, Finland and Sweden became members of the European Community on the 1st of January 1995 and consequently withdraw from the Convention in accordance with its Article XIX.

Today, there are six Contracting Parties: Estonia, the European Community, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and the Russian Federation.

For Co-ordinates of the Departments in charge of IBSFC matters of the Contracting Parties, please click on "Contracting Parties".

Observers

In accordance with Article XV of the Convention, the Commission shall co-operate with other international organisations having related objectives and may also extend an invitation to any international organisation concerned or to the Government of any State, not a Party to this Convention, to participate as an observer in the sessions of the Commission or meetings of its subsidiary bodies.

The "International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) ", the "Helsinki Commission (HELCOM) ", the "North East Atlantic Fishery Commission (NEAFC)", the "North Atlantic Salmon Commission (NASCO)" and the "UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)" are usually attending IBSFC Sessions.

The co-operation with ICES dates from the very first days when the Commission was established in 1974. Following a request from IBSFC, formulated during its Annual Sessions, ICES provides for much appreciated reports on the state of the most important fish stocks and advice for their management. The IBSFC recommendations, adopted during the subsequent annual session are based on this advice.

The co-operation between IBSFC and HELCOM has been strengthened in most recent years in particular after the Eight Dialogue Meeting "How to use the Sea: Management Interactions with Special Reference to the Baltic Sea and its Fisheries" (Gdynia 1991), co-sponsored by ICES, IBSFC and HELCOM. Both Commissions have observer status at their Annual Sessions and also at Committee and Working group level. IBSFC is a member of the HELCOM Programme Implementation Task Force (PITF) - since 1992. IBSFC informs HELCOM regularly on the status of the main fish stocks and the regulatory measures established by the Commission while HELCOM informs on the status of the environment of the Baltic Sea and the catchment area. Special attention is given by both Commissions to the protection of the wild Baltic Salmon.

The special attention for the state of wild salmon stocks has intensified the co-operation between the IBSFC and NASCO, the regulatory body for salmon the North Atlantic.

The NEAFC and IBSFC exchange observers in order to exchange experiences with new management concepts. This became increasingly important for the gradual implementation of the "Precautionary Approach".

The amended Rules of Procedure of the Commission (new Rule 9) allow Observers from non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) to attend on their request plenary meetings of the Sessions and the meetings  of the Standing  Committee on Regulatory Measures.

 

Finally, the IBSFC participates bi-annually in the FAO "COFI" meeting (the Commission on Fisheries) to inform about ongoing work and i.a. to be informed about new developments in the implementation of the FAO "Code of conduct for Responsible Fisheries". Pending ongoing analysis by ICES, IBSFC intends to adopt within short stock-specific target reference points and limit reference points, as provided for in Article 7.5.3 of the Code.