Following 9 July’s release of the State of the World’s Fisheries and Aquaculture (SOFIA 2012), WWF, Greenpeace and Oceana have all urged the European Union to use this year’s reform of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) to ensure that its fleet is reduced and that EU vessels fish sustainably inside and outside EU waters.
SOFIA 2012 estimates that, in 2009, 57 per cent of marine fisheries are fully exploited, while 30 per cent of all assessed marine stocks are overexploited. The report also shows that fisheries related employment supports the livelihoods of 10-12 per cent of the world’s population with 4.3 billion people depending on fish for about 15 per cent of their animal derived protein.
With fish having to meet the needs of a rapidly growing population, we cannot sustain a situation whereby 87 per cent of global marine fisheries are at or above full exploitation, said Roberto Ferrigno, CFP project director at WWF’s European Policy Office. The overcapacity of the EU’s fleet is a major obstacle to achieving sustainable fisheries, as the Commission pointed out today. 25% of the EU fleet is now operating in distant waters, driven by declining catches at home and fishing opportunities abroad. The EU has an important stake in saving fisheries worldwide from bankruptcy. Getting the CFP reform right would be a first major achievement after 30 years of fisheries mismanagement, he added.
Key challenges in moving fisheries to a sustainable path is finding solutions that are socially, economically and politically viable and bringing fishing capacity in line with the volume of fish that can be caught sustainably. By using the precautionary approach in addition to ecosystem- and science-based management, we can end overfishing and achieve fisheries that are not only sustainable from an environmental point of view, but also from an economic and social one, said Alfred Schumm, Leader of WWF’s global Smart Fishing Initiative.
Meanwhile Greenpeace observes that seven out of the 22 countries assessed by the Commission (Spain, Poland, the UK, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia) failed to declare whether their fleet capacity is in line with the availability and health of fish stocks, a crucial requirement to achieve sustainability. One country, the UK, failed to submit a report altogether.
Greenpeace EU fisheries policy director Saskia Richartz said: The Commission’s report shows that efforts by European countries to tackle the problem of excessive fleet capacity are falling wide of the mark. Year on year, EU countries authorise their fishing vessels to catch fish without keeping a proper count of their overall impact on fish populations and the sea. It is pretty obvious why so many of Europe’s fish stocks are overfished. Ministers must stop making such blunders and instead set tight rules and deadlines to bring their fleets to sustainable levels.
Oceana Board Member and fisheries scientist Dr Daniel Pauly noted that: not only does FAO summarise the situation of the world marine fisheries as worsening’, but the bright spots, where strict restrictions have allowed stocks to recover are the same few countries (notably the USA and Australia) as in the last assessment, their virtuous’ behaviour apparently having found few imitators.
Xavier Pastor, Executive Director of Oceana in Europe, added: How many more of these reports do world leaders and decision makers need to see? The state of European seas is nothing short of shameful. From the Mediterranean to the Atlantic and the Baltic, fish stocks have been systematically overfished, scientific advice has been ignored and habitats are being destroyed. These are simple facts and yet over and over we see our decision makers unwilling to be brave enough to do the right thing.
2010 The Scottish White Fish Producers’ Association