In 2009, Seas at Risk (SAR) compiled a comprehensive document on how to move to Low Impact Fisheries (LIF) in Europe, defined as more selective fishing techniques which are less damaging to habitats and have lower carbon footprints. Also, existing hurdles preventing such developments were discussed.
As a continuation SAR is soon launching a report on how to include LIF in the new Common Fishery Policy (CFP) and how policy measures could support developments towards more sustainable fishing techniques.
To highlight the coming report and to discuss the most important conclusions of their study, SAR organised a seminar at the European Parliament in Brussels on November 22. The meeting was well attended, and there was broad support from MEPs, Permanent Representatives, NGOs and industry, and also from Commissioner Maria Damanaki to include policy measures encouraging LIF in the new CFP. The seminar was attended by MEPs Anna Rosbach, Isabella Lovin and Christofer Fjellner.
Crick Carleton, from Nautilus Consultants, presented the most important messages of the soon to be published report: In the current proposal for the new CFP, there is much focus on matching fleets to fishing opportunities, in the management of stocks to reach MSY, but the question of how to minimise fishing-induced negative impacts on the environment and to protect biodiversity are neglected.
Carleton’s main message was that only small changes of the current wording are needed to induce large changes to include LIF in the revised CFP. For example, there should be explicit reference to LIF as an objective in the CFP and it is important to link this objective to existing Directives, especially to the Marie Strategy Framework Directive. Fishing regulations could thereby become flexible, so that for instance in threatened marine areas only LIF vessels could be permitted to fish. Furthermore, Carleton pointed out that a failing within the Commission’s CFP proposals is that high and low impact fisheries are not distinguished.
For Carleton, the introduction of Transferable Fishing Concessions (TFCs) should not be mandatory as suggested by the Commission for the CFP. Since fishing-induced environmental impact is often correlated with vessel size (small scale fisheries in general have less negative impact) there is a risk that TFCs will cause increased marine degradation by larger vessels, as quota is likely to concentrate in their hands. However, if implemented, Member States (MS) should make use of a range of management tools to restrict or counter the negative consequences through low impact fisheries. Clear guidance on appropriate tools were recommended to be included in the Basic Regulation and preference in the allocation of TFCs to those vessels deploying low impact fishing gear and practices should be one of those tools.
Regarding discarding, there is also a need to broaden the focus from “landing what you catch” to “not catching what you do not want”, which implies improved selectivity in of gears and fishing techniques.
It was also proposed that the possibility for Member States to reserve up to 5% of national fishing opportunities for allocation according to eligibility criteria, as proposed in the new CFP, should be expanded gradually to a mandatory reserve of at least 25% of national fishing opportunities. Guidance on allocation criteria should be agreed at EU level to ensure this 25% reserve serves to promote low impact fisheries.
At the meeting, Commissioner Damanaki stressed that we have already reached the “red line area” and that fishing cannot continue in the current way. She stated that funds available for the development of European fisheries should remain at the current level and assured that these funds would be used more progressively in the future, as part of the shift to more sustainable fisheries. “We will generously finance the selectivity of the gears”, she stated. She also stressed that the same rules should apply in European waters as well as for EU vessels fishing in foreign waters.
MEP Isabella Lovin summed up the meeting and in her closing remarks she expressed the need for not only rewarding Low Impact Fisheries but actively prohibiting fisheries that have significant negative impacts on the environment. She also advocated that Environmental Impact Assessments of all fisheries should be mandatory. Moreover, she concluded that socio-economic considerations must be included to safeguard especially small-scale, and often coastal, fisheries.
No comments:
Post a Comment