European Ministers continue fisheries extinction policy
Takver | 14.01.2005 06:57 | Analysis | Ecology
A 10 per cent reduction in fishing quotas was announced by the European Agriculture and Fisheries Council meeting held in Brussels, Belgium on 21-22 December. This small reduction has been strongly criticised as too small and too late by environmentalists and conservationists.
Fisheries in the north-east Atlantic and adjacent to Europe have been under increasing pressure of over exploitation. A 2003 scientific report by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), advised that a total of 41 per cent of commercial fish populations were outside safe biological limits, the status of 42 per cent was unknown and 16 per cent were within safe biological limits in the area of the north-east Atlantic, and adjacent areas such as the North and Baltic seas.
The European Commission withdrew at the last minute proposals for closed fishing areas to allow recovery of depleted cod in the North Sea, Irish Sea and the West of Scotland. Ben Bradshaw, British Fisheries Minister, said that two-year-old EU recovery plans for cod should be allowed to have an effect, and lead opposition to an outright ban arguing its effects would be "devastating" for fishing communities already struggling to cope with years of cutbacks.
"As always, our aim in these negotiations has been to take the tough decisions necessary to protect those stocks under threat while maximising opportunity for our fishermen to catch stocks that are healthy," said Bradshaw.
The European Commission had proposed Outright bans based on scientific advice from the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas, which warned that species such as cod, anchovies and crayfish were fast disappearing in European waters.
"This decision is just based on political and economic short-term interests," Greenpeace campaigner Thilo Maack said, warning that the EU compromise would backfire. "Right now more and more of them (fishermen) are facing bankruptcy because fishing is just not worth it because stocks are so low," he told AFP.
Charlotte Mogensen of WWF European Policy Office commented that the EU's approach was "thoroughly misguided". "We all want to secure a long-term future for commercial stocks and a healthier marine environment, but avoiding taking action is not going to help anyone as it will jeopardize stock recovery," she said.
"If they are unwilling to adopt the proposed closed areas at this meeting, then we challenge Member States around the North Sea to meet with stakeholders early in the New Year to explore ways in which workable closed areas can be introduced in the North Sea for the purposes of fish stock recovery. Only by massive increase in political will to solve the fisheries crisis, are we likely to achieve recovery of depleted stocks." said Mogensen.
This is the second year running European Fisheries Ministers have rejected measures designed to safeguard dwindling fish stocks and have cast aside plans for closed areas and reduced quotas for vulnerable deep sea species.
"This is a thoroughly misguided strategy," warns Helen Davies, Fisheries Officer at WWF.
"We all want to secure a long term future for commercial stocks and a healthier marine environment but avoiding taking any action isn't going to help anyone as it will jeopardise fish stock recovery. Some hard decisions have to be made."
Helen Davies went on to say: "Sadly Ministers have failed to take decisive action and failed to deliver the key reforms of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP)."
"It's ironic that Ministers have rejected the proposals for closed areas, as the Industry themselves are supporting a closure in several areas themselves." said Daivies.
A key scientific body, the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), adviced reductions in the Total Allowable Catches (TACs) and quotas for the most vulnerable deep sea stocks which are at risk of over-fishing or are already at unsustainable levels of exploitation. This advice was effectively ignored by the Ministers.
Instead, measures were introduced to decrease the number of days that fishermen are allowed to go to sea. This measure will make little impact on heavily depleted cod stocks argues the WWF.
Sea Shepherd: worldwide fisheries in collapse because of excessive greed
--------------------------------------------------------
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society also issued a statement, before the meeting of Ministers, arguing that even the proposed closure of dangerously depleted cod grounds in the North Sea, Irish Sea, and off the west of Scotland was doing too little too late. For years, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has been warning that the fish species off the coast of Europe would crash due to excessive overfishing.
Captain Paul Watson, the President of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, said "What Europe is proposing is to cut down the quotas to allow for the continued exploitation at the same relative rate of exploitation as before. These proposals will do little to stop the complete collapse of entire fish species off the coast of Europe. The seas off Europe will soon become a biological wasteland unless there is a complete moratorium on fishing sufficient to allow these devastated populations to recover."
Britain's Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution (RCEP) "Turning the Tide" Report proposed that commercial fishing should be banned in 30 per cent of UK waters to save threatened species. In response Sea Shepherd proposed that there be a 100 per cent moratorium on cod fish for fifty years to allow for the recovery of this much diminished species. According to Captain Watson, "The cod have not recovered off Newfoundland over the last 12 years, so fifty years in a more practical period to ensure the possibility of recovery."
In response to the decimation of sea birds, reported by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and others, Sea Shepherd proposed a 100 per cent moratorium on sand eels to save the puffins, a bird species that relies on these little fish for survival. According to Captain Watson, "sand eels are puffin food and humans have no business stealing it from them." Sand eels are a vital food source for several bird species.
According to Sea Shepherd the worldwide fisheries are in collapse because of the excessive greed of the industry over the decades. They propose that the only solution to the collapse is to ban all commercial fishing activities worldwide.
Captain Watson, aboard the Farley Mowat in Bermudan waters, said "This may seem like a radical position, but it is far less radical than continuing to exterminate entire species of fish from the sea. We are the conservatives here and the radicals are intent upon justifying their greedy destruction. The plain fact of the matter is that there are too many people and not enough fish in the sea to continue to feed them. All commercial fishing activities must be shut-down to prevent massive extinctions and extirpations of dozens of species worldwide. The cod is done, the Chilean sea bass (orange roughy) are finished – even sharks have been dangerously diminished. When will humanity demonstrate some of this so-called intelligence that we attribute to ourselves, and take steps to protect and conserve these species?"
Effect on Southern Ocean Fisheries
-------------------------------
The effect of this European policy will be felt as far as the Southern Oceans. WWF-New Zealand Conservation Director Eric Pyle said, "This cut in quota is a salutary lesson for fisheries all over the world. Such cuts are going to happen more frequently in the next few years as fisheries around the world collapse." As fisheries in the north decline and quotas are reduced, fishing boats will increasingly turn to the Southern Oceans in the hunt for fish according to Eric Pyle.
Increased longline fishing activity in the Souther Oceans will greatly affect albatross numbers. Nearly 40% of albatross species are native to New Zealand. "Crashing northern fisheries are bad news for albatross in the Southern Ocean. This is of real concern to New Zealand because so many albatross species nest in New Zealand and are native to New Zealand," Mr Pyle says.
During the 1990s shared orange roughy fisheries were over-exploited by Australian and New Zealand deep sea trawling. "It would be stupid to allow our other fisheries to go the way of Orange Roughy," Mr Pyle says.
To protect deep sea fish like the orange roughy, and underwater mount ecologies, Humane Society International wants all 70 underwater mountains just south of Tasmania put on the Australian national heritage list. HSI also wants the orange roughy listed as endangered.
Nicola Beynon from the society says trawling has severely damaged the mounts and decimated the population. "The stocks have crashed and the quotas that the Australian Government has in place are not actually managing to recover those populations," she said.
Orange Roughy are thought to live up to 150 years and do not become mature until they are 25-30 years old. They are slow to reproduce. Deep Sea trawling is a highly destructive method of fishing where the ecology of the underwater mounts and plateaus are destroyed through trawling the bottom. Up to a quarter of the resulting catch may be unwanted species, which are thrown back dead.
Sources:
* WWF (UK) - 21 Dec 2004 - WWF condemns withdrawal of North Sea closed areas proposal
http://www.wwf.org.uk/News/n_0000001419.asp
* WWF (UK) - 22 Dec 2004 - Ministers fail yet again to protect fish stocks
http://www.wwf.org.uk/news/n_0000001421.asp
* WWF - 22 Dec 2004 - EU Fisheries Council fails again to protect fish stocks
* WWF (NZ) - 23 Dec 2004 - North Sea fishing quota cuts are likely to affect Southern Oceans says WWF
http://www.wwf.org.nz/news_and_events/2000-12-23.cfm
* Sea Shepherd - 13 Dec 2004 - Another Sea Shepherd Prediction Comes to Pass
http://www.seashepherd.org/news/media_041213_1.html
* RSPB 5 Jan05 - Seabirds in the North Sea: victims of climate change?
http://www.birdlife.org/news/features/2005/01/north_sea_seabirds.html
* European Commission - 22 Dec 2004 - Outcome of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council
http://europa.eu.int/
More Information:
* Turning the Tide - Addressing the impact of Fisheries on the Marine Environment - Launched 7 December 2004
http://www.rcep.org.uk/fishreport.htm
* International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES)
http://www.ices.dk/
* Australian Marine Conservation Society: Orange roughy: Down and out -
An unsustainable seafood choice from a destructive trawl fishery
http://www.amcs.org.au/campaigns/fisheries_unhooked/ss_orange_roughy.html
* Greenpeace New Zealand - Deep Sea bottom Trawling
http://www.greenpeace.org.nz/campaigns/oceans/deep_sea.asp
* Visit the Ocean Futures Society established by Jacques Cousteau
Sustainable Fisheries News - Ocean Futures Society
http://www.oceanfutures.org/news/sustainable_fisheries.asp
The European Commission withdrew at the last minute proposals for closed fishing areas to allow recovery of depleted cod in the North Sea, Irish Sea and the West of Scotland. Ben Bradshaw, British Fisheries Minister, said that two-year-old EU recovery plans for cod should be allowed to have an effect, and lead opposition to an outright ban arguing its effects would be "devastating" for fishing communities already struggling to cope with years of cutbacks.
"As always, our aim in these negotiations has been to take the tough decisions necessary to protect those stocks under threat while maximising opportunity for our fishermen to catch stocks that are healthy," said Bradshaw.
The European Commission had proposed Outright bans based on scientific advice from the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas, which warned that species such as cod, anchovies and crayfish were fast disappearing in European waters.
"This decision is just based on political and economic short-term interests," Greenpeace campaigner Thilo Maack said, warning that the EU compromise would backfire. "Right now more and more of them (fishermen) are facing bankruptcy because fishing is just not worth it because stocks are so low," he told AFP.
Charlotte Mogensen of WWF European Policy Office commented that the EU's approach was "thoroughly misguided". "We all want to secure a long-term future for commercial stocks and a healthier marine environment, but avoiding taking action is not going to help anyone as it will jeopardize stock recovery," she said.
"If they are unwilling to adopt the proposed closed areas at this meeting, then we challenge Member States around the North Sea to meet with stakeholders early in the New Year to explore ways in which workable closed areas can be introduced in the North Sea for the purposes of fish stock recovery. Only by massive increase in political will to solve the fisheries crisis, are we likely to achieve recovery of depleted stocks." said Mogensen.
This is the second year running European Fisheries Ministers have rejected measures designed to safeguard dwindling fish stocks and have cast aside plans for closed areas and reduced quotas for vulnerable deep sea species.
"This is a thoroughly misguided strategy," warns Helen Davies, Fisheries Officer at WWF.
"We all want to secure a long term future for commercial stocks and a healthier marine environment but avoiding taking any action isn't going to help anyone as it will jeopardise fish stock recovery. Some hard decisions have to be made."
Helen Davies went on to say: "Sadly Ministers have failed to take decisive action and failed to deliver the key reforms of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP)."
"It's ironic that Ministers have rejected the proposals for closed areas, as the Industry themselves are supporting a closure in several areas themselves." said Daivies.
A key scientific body, the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), adviced reductions in the Total Allowable Catches (TACs) and quotas for the most vulnerable deep sea stocks which are at risk of over-fishing or are already at unsustainable levels of exploitation. This advice was effectively ignored by the Ministers.
Instead, measures were introduced to decrease the number of days that fishermen are allowed to go to sea. This measure will make little impact on heavily depleted cod stocks argues the WWF.
Sea Shepherd: worldwide fisheries in collapse because of excessive greed
--------------------------------------------------------
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society also issued a statement, before the meeting of Ministers, arguing that even the proposed closure of dangerously depleted cod grounds in the North Sea, Irish Sea, and off the west of Scotland was doing too little too late. For years, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has been warning that the fish species off the coast of Europe would crash due to excessive overfishing.
Captain Paul Watson, the President of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, said "What Europe is proposing is to cut down the quotas to allow for the continued exploitation at the same relative rate of exploitation as before. These proposals will do little to stop the complete collapse of entire fish species off the coast of Europe. The seas off Europe will soon become a biological wasteland unless there is a complete moratorium on fishing sufficient to allow these devastated populations to recover."
Britain's Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution (RCEP) "Turning the Tide" Report proposed that commercial fishing should be banned in 30 per cent of UK waters to save threatened species. In response Sea Shepherd proposed that there be a 100 per cent moratorium on cod fish for fifty years to allow for the recovery of this much diminished species. According to Captain Watson, "The cod have not recovered off Newfoundland over the last 12 years, so fifty years in a more practical period to ensure the possibility of recovery."
In response to the decimation of sea birds, reported by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and others, Sea Shepherd proposed a 100 per cent moratorium on sand eels to save the puffins, a bird species that relies on these little fish for survival. According to Captain Watson, "sand eels are puffin food and humans have no business stealing it from them." Sand eels are a vital food source for several bird species.
According to Sea Shepherd the worldwide fisheries are in collapse because of the excessive greed of the industry over the decades. They propose that the only solution to the collapse is to ban all commercial fishing activities worldwide.
Captain Watson, aboard the Farley Mowat in Bermudan waters, said "This may seem like a radical position, but it is far less radical than continuing to exterminate entire species of fish from the sea. We are the conservatives here and the radicals are intent upon justifying their greedy destruction. The plain fact of the matter is that there are too many people and not enough fish in the sea to continue to feed them. All commercial fishing activities must be shut-down to prevent massive extinctions and extirpations of dozens of species worldwide. The cod is done, the Chilean sea bass (orange roughy) are finished – even sharks have been dangerously diminished. When will humanity demonstrate some of this so-called intelligence that we attribute to ourselves, and take steps to protect and conserve these species?"
Effect on Southern Ocean Fisheries
-------------------------------
The effect of this European policy will be felt as far as the Southern Oceans. WWF-New Zealand Conservation Director Eric Pyle said, "This cut in quota is a salutary lesson for fisheries all over the world. Such cuts are going to happen more frequently in the next few years as fisheries around the world collapse." As fisheries in the north decline and quotas are reduced, fishing boats will increasingly turn to the Southern Oceans in the hunt for fish according to Eric Pyle.
Increased longline fishing activity in the Souther Oceans will greatly affect albatross numbers. Nearly 40% of albatross species are native to New Zealand. "Crashing northern fisheries are bad news for albatross in the Southern Ocean. This is of real concern to New Zealand because so many albatross species nest in New Zealand and are native to New Zealand," Mr Pyle says.
During the 1990s shared orange roughy fisheries were over-exploited by Australian and New Zealand deep sea trawling. "It would be stupid to allow our other fisheries to go the way of Orange Roughy," Mr Pyle says.
To protect deep sea fish like the orange roughy, and underwater mount ecologies, Humane Society International wants all 70 underwater mountains just south of Tasmania put on the Australian national heritage list. HSI also wants the orange roughy listed as endangered.
Nicola Beynon from the society says trawling has severely damaged the mounts and decimated the population. "The stocks have crashed and the quotas that the Australian Government has in place are not actually managing to recover those populations," she said.
Orange Roughy are thought to live up to 150 years and do not become mature until they are 25-30 years old. They are slow to reproduce. Deep Sea trawling is a highly destructive method of fishing where the ecology of the underwater mounts and plateaus are destroyed through trawling the bottom. Up to a quarter of the resulting catch may be unwanted species, which are thrown back dead.
Sources:
* WWF (UK) - 21 Dec 2004 - WWF condemns withdrawal of North Sea closed areas proposal
http://www.wwf.org.uk/News/n_0000001419.asp * WWF (UK) - 22 Dec 2004 - Ministers fail yet again to protect fish stocks
http://www.wwf.org.uk/news/n_0000001421.asp * WWF - 22 Dec 2004 - EU Fisheries Council fails again to protect fish stocks
* WWF (NZ) - 23 Dec 2004 - North Sea fishing quota cuts are likely to affect Southern Oceans says WWF
http://www.wwf.org.nz/news_and_events/2000-12-23.cfm * Sea Shepherd - 13 Dec 2004 - Another Sea Shepherd Prediction Comes to Pass
http://www.seashepherd.org/news/media_041213_1.html * RSPB 5 Jan05 - Seabirds in the North Sea: victims of climate change?
http://www.birdlife.org/news/features/2005/01/north_sea_seabirds.html * European Commission - 22 Dec 2004 - Outcome of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council
http://europa.eu.int/ More Information:
* Turning the Tide - Addressing the impact of Fisheries on the Marine Environment - Launched 7 December 2004
http://www.rcep.org.uk/fishreport.htm * International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES)
http://www.ices.dk/ * Australian Marine Conservation Society: Orange roughy: Down and out -
An unsustainable seafood choice from a destructive trawl fishery
http://www.amcs.org.au/campaigns/fisheries_unhooked/ss_orange_roughy.html * Greenpeace New Zealand - Deep Sea bottom Trawling
http://www.greenpeace.org.nz/campaigns/oceans/deep_sea.asp * Visit the Ocean Futures Society established by Jacques Cousteau
Sustainable Fisheries News - Ocean Futures Society
http://www.oceanfutures.org/news/sustainable_fisheries.asp
Takver
Comments
Hide the following comment
fisherman trying to protect bass spawning stock
21.08.2006 07:49
The general opinion seems to be that everybody is concerned about the way in which european fisheries policies are managed,including me.
I am a full time commercial fisherman, have been for 30 years.
I believe that a change in direction on fisheries management is needed in light of the failed Common Fisheries Policy.
I have written a letter to Commissioner Joe Borg about my concerns which I will post on here.
Am I just wasteing my time? Having read the above acticle I think my time would have been better spent fixing some nets or sleeping.
Have a good day
kind regards
stephen gathergood
S P Gathergood
Commercial Fisherman
Email:
106 Dunkeld Road
Gosport
Hants
PO12 4NJ
17 August 2006
Commissioner Joe Borg
European Commission
B-1049 Brussels
Dear Commissioner Borg
RE:- BASS CONSERVATION MEASURES
It has just been announced by Mr Ben Bradshaw MP minister for fisheries that the minimum landing size (mls) for Bass is to increase from 36 cm to 40 cm with a further rise to 45 cm in 2010.
The rise in mls will undoubtedly weaken the economy of the UK small scale fishermen (under 10 mtrs) who fish using sustainable methods. There is no prospect of any medium to long term gain as increased wasteful discards will prevent any benefit of this conservation measure from ever occurring.
UK small scale fishermen will be compromised and disadvantaged in relation to the larger fish enterprises of the Belgium and French fishing fleets. Theses fleets will still be able to catch and market Bass in the 36 to 40 cm range. A level playing field will no longer exist in the catching and marketing sectors for this range of Bass.
To all intents and purposes the UK fisheries department have removed UK fishermen’s rights of access to open and free trading on a common resource, as their fishing rights to the size range of Bass 36-40 cm have been in affect transferred to other member states.
It has recently been reported in the Fishing News that it is the intention of the European Fisheries Commission to consider whether to elect Bass on to the pressure stock list so as to allocate a TAC (quota) for it.
This will destroy the small scale UK fishermen who have employed sustainable fishing methods and consequently have only built up a small historical track record. Whereas the French and other member states on the other hand have slaughtered the Bass with huge pair trawls (unsustainably) when they are shoaled up ready to spawn and easy to catch, as to are the Dolphins that feed on the Bass. In this grossly unfair way of allocating quotas the French will as always receive the loins share at the detriment to UK small scale fishermen.
More importantly the long term future and sustainability of the Bass stocks and the way it is managed needs to be looked at in depth.
Firstly measures are needed to achieve long term sustainability. Fishing using non-sustainable methods such as pair trawling at the currant rate of exploitation just before and during the spawning season will at some point in the future compromise the Bass stocks ability to sustain itself.
A long term management strategy should be considered and implemented so as to make certain that the Bass Fishery has the capacity to renew itself.
It is important to evaluate the performance of previous management fisheries policies and learn from them.
I am very disappointed and horrified to learn that the European Fisheries Commission are even considering electing Bass onto the pressure stock list and allocating a quota for it.
The lessons to be learned from other fisheries are that quotas particularly in mixed fisheries are counter productive.
The Cod quotas only ever aided the collapse of the Cod Fishery and even the Cod Recovery Plan has failed to have any beneficial affect on improving the situation, lessons must be learnt from this.
I believe that if Bass are elected to the pressure stock list and quoted then the same fate will befall the Bass as what has happen to the Cod Fishery. I can not over stress the importance of a coherent responsible long term Management strategy that will bring meaningful benefits to the Bass fishery so as to avoid the misery of failed fishery polices such as that which has happened to the Cod.
If the Fisheries Commission does elect Bass to the pressure stock list and quotas it the discards will be horrendous. There will be two levels of discards, one when the monthly and yearly quota runs out and the UK will always be producing wasteful discards through lack of quota. The other level of discards will be produced on a permanent basis by the increase in the UK’s mls increase to 40 cm.
The UK’s fishery department has seen fit to take it upon itself to go it alone on Bass conservation matters. The lack of joined up thinking between this department and the European Fishery Commission is only creating fragmented and peace meal fishery polices that maybe detrimental to the Bass Fishery.
The biomass of spawning adult Bass shoal up in the English Channel from January to March each year to spawn. They spend most of that time in midwater searching out the layers of water that are 9 degrees or above. Large midwater trawlers exploit this trait and remove a large proportion of Bass before it has chance to spawn along with the Dolphins that feed on them. This is where the Bass stock is most vulnerable and in need of the most protection for its future sustainability. At the current rate of exploitation on the adult spawning stock it is only a matter of time before the fishery collapses, therefore, any other measures will be completely meaningless without a strong protected adult spawning stock which is capable of sustaining itself.
I would be grateful if you would please submit this letter to the next European Fisheries Commissioners committee meeting and that they consider adopting the following three proposals.
1 That the committee consider adopting as a matter of policy to have a closed fishing season on Bass from the 1 of January to the 31 of march each year so as the spawning stock of Bass may spawn unhindered also this will resolve the matter of Dolphin mortality within this fishery.
2 That the committee consider adopting as a matter of policy not to elect Bass onto the pressure stock list.
3 That the committee consider adopting as a matter of policy to either increase the minimum landing size for Bass applicable to all member states in line with the UK’s Bass Management Plan or to annul the UK’s mls increases so as all members states retain the same balanced mls for Bass.
If you feel the need for clarification or further information please do not hesitate to ask.
Yours sincerely
S P Gathergood
Fishing Vessel
Phyllis John (P77)
Copies to:-
Mr Ben Bradshaw MP Minister for Fisheries
Mr Tim Oliver Editor Fishing News
stephen gathergood
e-mail:
spgathergood@yahoo.co.uk