European plaice is doing well in the North sea. The stock reached a record level in 2013 and is above the MSYMSY:
Theoretically the greatest possible 'safe' catch, in which fish populations have sufficient size to reproduce in the long term. level. Fishermen are therefore again allowed to catch more plaice. There are however measures needed to limit the bycatch and environmental effects.
In this mixed flatfish fishery a small mesh size is used, which causes a lot of bycatchBycatch:
Species caught next to species targeted for fishery. By-catches can consist of non-commercial species and species that are too small, and can be kept (this part is sometimes called by-product) or thrown back into the sea (discards). of young [undersized fish]. A large part of the bycatch is discarded, but the survivability of these discards is low.
Fishing with a [beam trawl] touches the seabed and disturbs the bottom life. Intensive fishing with the beam trawl leads on the long term to a change in the [species composition] in sea.
The management of this fishery level is done at EU-level and a [long-term management plan] for sole and plaice has been adopted. This plan is positive for plaice.