The European Union has been overexploiting its fish populations for decades, bringing its fishing industries to the brink of collapse.
Cartoon courtesy of redgreenandblue.org.Some may wonder what will likely feel worse – the demise of these industries under their current practices or the proposed plans to bring them back to sustainability.
In the EU’s latest attempt to turn the tide on unsustainability, Maria Damanaki, European commissioner for maritime affairs and fisheries, has introduced a set of new proposals to reform the current Common Fisheries Policy (CFP).
The proposed plan will deal with issues including catch limits; banning discards (tossing back fish that are too small); decentralizing the fishing system; providing financial assistance for those that implement sustainable eco-friendly fishing practices, and ending subsidies for unsustainable fishing practices.
Damanaki made her case before the European Parliament’s fisheries committee, explaining that, “75 percent of EU stocks (fish populations) are still overfished and a third of them are in a worrying state. Europe has to rely on imports for two-thirds of its fish.”
To further highlight the economic costs, she added that, “Too many fleet segments live on low profits, depending on subsidies for survival,” and that “sustainability is at the heart of proposed reform.”
The European Commission sees sustainability as “the highest catch that can be safely taken year after year and which maintains the fish population size at maximum productivity,” and would like to see this level of sustainability reached by 2015.
As part of this plan, Damanaki told the European Parliament that she wants to ban the practice of tossing back fish that are too small, and said, “So I propose to change the system so that all catches are landed (kept) and counted against quotas.”
The plan stipulates that “fishermen will be obliged to land all the commercial species they catch. This will lead to more reliable data on fish stocks, support better management, and improve resource efficiency. It is also incentive to avoid unwanted catches by means of technical solutions such as more selective fishing gear.”
It should be understood that undersized fish can’t be sold for human consumption in the EU, so the undersized fish will be counted as part of the quotas, but be financial losses.
Under this plan, EU member states would be required to make sure their fishing vessels are equipped to ensure full documentation of all fishing and processing activities so as to monitor compliance with the obligation to land all catches.
Damanaki is also seeking to end the European Parliament’s centralized management of the EU’s fishing industries.
“I want to decentralize. The EU has to be the lighthouse, showing the way. Member states, regions and industry have to steer the ship, and avoid the rocks,” said Damanaki as an analogy of what she would like to see in a decentralization of fishing regulations in the EU
The plan proposes to “end micromanagement from Brussels so that EU legislators will only define the general framework, the basic principles, the overall targets, the performance indicators, and the timeframes. Member states will then decide the actual implementing measures, and will cooperate at the regional level.”
The European Commission also released a report on the proposed reform of the Common Fisheries Policy, saying “EU financial assistance will be granted to support the sustainability objectives of the new CFP. It will focus on greening, innovation, coastal development, science, and research.
“Fleet subsidies that maintain unsustainable structures will be discontinued. There will be no public money for those who do not comply with the rules. Member states may see payments interrupted or suspended, while operations many be subject to temporary or permanent bans on future subsidies if they violate sustainability principals.”
The European Commission also estimates that if fish populations are harvested in a sustainable manner, populations would increase by about 70 percent.
“Overall catches would increase by around 17 percent, profits could be multiplied by a factor of three, returns on investments would be six times higher, and the gross value-added for the catching industry would rise by almost 90 percent, equal to €2.7 billion over the next decade,” added the European Commission.
If the new plan is adopted by the European Parliament and Council, the European Commission would like to see the plan “enter into force” by Jan. 1, 2013.
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