EU’s Fishing Industries Likely To Feel A Bite If Newly Proposed Sustainability Plans Are Adopted

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.”

Click to read more ...

Europe’s Appetite For Seafood and Overfishing Threatening Domestic Industry Sustainability

Decades of European overfishing is now reaching crisis levels. Without new sustainability regulations in place, the European Union’s fishing industry continues to overexploit its waters, and now needs to increasingly depend on imported fish to meet domestic consumer demands.

Overfishing in European Union waters. Cartoon from the World Wildlife Fund.

“EU catches have steadily declined since 1993 at an average rate of two percent per year,” according to the new report, Fish Dependence - 2011 Update: Increasing reliance of the EU on fish from elsewhere, by the nef and the OCEAN2012 alliance.

The report finds that as the EU’s domestic fish populations continue to decline, “fish consumption in the EU continues to increase and remains at levels beyond what EU waters can produce.” It estimates that Europeans eat about 29 percent more seafood that the global average.

This trend is having both a devastating effect on the ecology of the EU’s domestic waters and on the ability of EU states to maintain profitability in their fishing industries.

If this trend continues, it means less fish for European consumers, and higher prices for the fish. For decades, the EU has had to import a portion of its fish supplies to meet consumer demands, and every year that number has grown.

Click to read more ...