Saturday, January 28, 2012
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Monday, January 23, 2012
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Commission explains CFP reform proposals
The Commission recently published a leaflet as well as several non-papers which provide some detail behind their thinking for the CFP reform proposals. They argue that because “our vessels are catching more fish than can be safely reproduced…(and) the fishing industry is experiencing smaller catches”, a radical reform is necessary.
In order to bring fish stocks back to sustainable levels, the Commission proposals seek to manage fish stocks at or beyond MSY by 2015, in line with the EU’s international commitments. Moreover, support for small-scale fisheries, a discard ban for commercial stocks and multiannual plans are cornerstones of their plans.
Plans for transferable fishing concessions (TFCs), which have been described as the privatisation of the oceans, as well as large new subsidies to increase the capacity of the European aquaculture industry are amongst the more controversial policies being pursued by the Commission.
Do you know what your fish ate for breakfast?
The Swedish Society for Nature Conservation and Swedwatch today launched their report on aquaculture and the use of fishmeal in production. It explores the supply chain of tiger prawns from Thailand (the world’s largest exporter) and farmed Norwegian salmon via Peruvian fisheries to identify how consumption in Sweden leads to food chains being fished out in less developed nations.
In conjunction with the report, a short film entitled “catching Nemo” investigating IUU and overfishing in Thai waters to feed the ever-growing tiger prawn farming business has been produced. Bottom trawling of coral reefs and mangrove destruction are direct effects of this unregulated industry. Lower trophic level species have been fished out to feed the shellfish, and this has led to degraded ecosystems with less productive fisheries. By contrast, Burma, which has an undeveloped fishing industry and is not engaged in exporting large quantities of tiger prawns still has stable fish stocks in place. In response to the publication, Pizza Hut will no longer sell tiger prawns at any of its Swedish outlets.
At the launch of the report, Eskil Erlandsson, the Swedish Minster for Rural Affairs, agreed that there were ethical questions surrounding the import of fish products which erode the sustainability of fishing in less wealthy nations. Erlandsson also supported the European Parliament’s decision to revoke the fisheries partnership agreement with Morocco on ethical grounds. However, he also stated that Sweden should seek to expand its aquaculture industry, but produce high quality products that were in line with best practice.
Asa Romson, his counterpart from the Green Party, went one step further and argued that Sweden should ban imports of tiger prawns. She also said that regulations surrounding fishmeal and fodder production were a gap in the CFP reform which needed to be addressed.
While speakers at the event were in agreement that the consumption of tiger prawns was not ethical considering how the supply chain delivers the product to Sweden, a significant part of the discussions focused on farmed Norwegian salmon. The average Swede (including children) consumes 3.5 kg per year, 90% of which is imported from Norway. Given that for each kilo of farmed salmon, between 2-5 kg of fish are used as feed, it has been identified as an inefficient source of protein which further depletes fish stocks. As yet none of the politicians thought that immediate legislative measures were required to deal with these problems, the unresolved question of unsustainable consumption practices remains.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Good reasons to criticise December quota decision
At the December Council, EU fisheries Ministers set quotas for 75 stocks in EU waters, covering the North Sea, Kattegat, Skagerrak and Black Sea. Seafish has produced a table that includes the agreed TACs for 2011 and 2012, along with the ICES advice for each stock (see below).
The December TACs were sharply criticised by environmental organisations for ignoring scientific advice and for not following the North Sea long-term management plan for herring. The latter case was particularly disappointing as several of the Member States who pushed for the doubling of the herring quota have also emphasised the need for multiannual plans to become a cornerstone of the reformed CFP.
For the 75 stocks in EU waters, the Council followed scientific advice in only 14 cases. Moreover, the Commission had proposed mandatory cuts of either 15% or 25% for the 44 data poor stocks for which there is an insufficient scientific basis to make TAC assessments. However, the Council only followed these proposals on 4 occasions.
What is surprising is that within the EFF programme for 2007-2013 Member States have not used all the available funding for data collection. During this period, Member States have been underspending by 20% on data collection while at the same time scientific advice is missing for 2/3 of the EU total allowable catch and Member States have failed to comply with the data collection framework regulation.
There is widespread agreement that scientific advice needs to be the basis for the setting of fishing quotas. Therefore, it is also vital that Member States fulfil their responsibilities to ensure that the best quality of advice is available to Ministers. At the moment this is clearly not happening for the majority of EU fish stocks.
Five years ago this month, the U.S entered into law the setting of annual science-based catch limits, as part of their efforts to end overfishing. This has led to considerable improvements – since 2000 23 U.S fish stocks have been declared rebuilt. With the CFP reform proposals on the table not containing any similar obligations for the setting of EU fishing limits despite the current depleted state of EU fish stocks, there are good reasons for looking across the Atlantic to see how fish stocks can be rebuilt.