April 2018

Reaction: Why is the EU Pursuing Embarrassment Instead of Sustainable Fisheries Management?

Brussels, 25 April 2018:- Responding to findings published in the newly published STECF (Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries) report on progress towards implementation of the reformed Common Fisheries Policy, which suggest that the EU will fail to meet its own 2020 deadline, Our Fish Programme Director Rebecca Hubbard said:

“The STEFC report has confirmed what we already know – that the EU is not on track to meet its own 2020 deadline for sustainable fish stocks – yet the fishing industry keeps on lobbying for continued overfishing. Instead of achieving global stardom for sustainable fisheries management, the EU is in danger of international embarrassment, due to a lack of the leadership needed to deliver the reformed Common Fisheries Policy.”

The STECF report notes that stock status has significantly improved since 2003, but that the rate of progress has slowed in the last few years, with more than 50% of stocks remaining overfished or outside safe biological limits. The results are in line with what was reported in 2017, with progress achieved until 2016 too slow to ensure that all stocks will be rebuilt and managed according to scientific advice by 2020. The Mediterranean remains a particularly bleak picture, with business-as-usual maintaining severe overfishing and depleted stocks.

“With national political efforts being driven by fishing industry influences, it’s no surprise that EU-wide progress to end overfishing has slowed. Yet with recent low fuel prices helping EU fishing fleets make record profits, now is the time for the transition to pain-free fish stock recovery.”

“By failing to manage what is in effect an extractive industry, EU fisheries ministers are providing the fishing industry with the means for its own demise. Instead, they must end overfishing, in order to ensure the future health of EU fish stocks, the marine environment, and realise the social and economic benefits for all EU citizens, who are the rightful custodians of Europe’s seas.”

“This year, the EU Commission and member state Fisheries Ministers still have a chance to turn the ship around; they can increase the number of fish stocks they manage based on scientific advice, or face the uncomfortable realisation that they do not deserve to sit with global leaders at the sustainable fisheries table”.

ENDS

NOTES:

Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF) – Monitoring the performance of the Common Fisheries Policy (STECF-Adhoc-18-01)

According to the European Commission, “the implementation of the CFP requires the assistance of highly qualified scientific personnel, particularly in the application of marine and fisheries biology, fishing gear technology, fisheries economics, fisheries governance, ecosystem effects of fisheries, aquaculture or similar disciplines, or in the field of collection, management and use of fisheries and aquaculture data”. STEFC members “are nominated by the European Commission from highly qualified scientific experts having competence in these fields”.

Contacts

Dave Walsh, Our Fish Communications Advisor, dave@our.fish +34 691826764

Rebecca Hubbard, Our Fish Program Director, rebecca@our.fish +34 657669425

About Our Fish

Our Fish works to ensure European member states implement the Common Fisheries Policy and achieve sustainable fish stocks in European waters.

Our Fish works with organisations and individuals across Europe to deliver a powerful and unwavering message: overfishing must be stopped, and solutions put in place that ensure Europe’s waters are fished sustainably. Our Fish demands that the Common Fisheries Policy be properly enforced, and Europe’s fisheries effectively governed.

Our Fish calls on all EU Member States to set annual fishing limits at sustainable limits based on scientific advice, and to ensure that their fishing fleets prove that they are fishing sustainably, through monitoring and full documentation of their catch.

http://our.fish

Follow Our Fish on Twitter: @our_fish

 

Save Our Seas: 172,120 EU Citizens Deliver Demand to Environment and Fisheries Ministers

Sofia, Bulgaria, 10 April 2018:- As the Council of EU Environment Ministers meeting opens today in Sofia, 172,120 signatures from EU citizens calling for the EU to protect our seas and end overfishing were received by State Secretary for Environment of Sweden, Per Ängquist.

A joint initiative by campaigning organisations Our Fish, Seas at Risk and WeMove.EU, the petition provides a platform for concerned EU citizens to call on EU member states to implement the laws they have already agreed upon to have clean and healthy seas, and to end overfishing by 2020 at the latest.

The text of the petition, launched in October 2017, reads:

“It’s time to stick to the commitment you made to save and protect our seas by 2020 under the EU Marine Directive. More needs to be done to end overfishing, and fish are not waste and should not be discarded. At least 30% of EU seas need to become Marine Protected Areas and further ambitious measures should be taken to achieve ecologically diverse, clean and healthy seas as prescribed by EU law.”

“European Union member countries wrote and signed up to laws that could protect our oceans and end overfishing by 2020 if correctly implemented. But so far they are blatantly ignoring their own promises, while our marine ecosystems continue to be destroyed. With only a couple of years left to act, the challenges are getting bigger every day”, said Alice Belin, Marine Policy Officer for Seas At Risk.

“EU Environment and Fisheries Ministers are making decisions that impact on our ocean, our food, and our communities. It’s time those decisions started following scientific advice and EU law, rather than the narrow profit-based interests of a small number of fishing industry heavyweights,” said Our Fish Program Director Rebecca Hubbard.  

Over 40% of fish stocks in the North-East Atlantic are still overfished, while a staggering 90% of EU fish stocks in the Mediterranean are overfished. Throughout EU waters millions of fish are still being wasted at sea, despite the EU discard ban introduced in 2014.

Wildlife protection is a joke: We still only have 9% of seas in Marine Protected Areas around Europe and not 30% as recommended by scientists. Most of the existing protected areas are “Paper Parks” with only a small percentage fully protected.

“People from all over Europe are calling on the EU Environment and Fisheries Ministers to take urgent action – immediately – if they are to achieve the ecologically diverse, clean and healthy seas they promised by 2020. This must include ending overfishing, and protection of at least 30% of EU seas”, said Jörg Rohwedder, Senior Campaigner at WeMove.EU.

Contacts

Dave Walsh, Our Fish Communications Advisor, dave@our.fish +34 691826764

Rebecca Hubbard, Our Fish Program Director, rebecca@our.fish +34 657669425

Alice Belin, Seas At Risk, Marine Policy officer abelin@seas-at-risk.org +32 2 893 0921

About Our Fish

Our Fish works to ensure European member states implement the Common Fisheries Policy and achieve sustainable fish stocks in European waters.

Our Fish works with organisations and individuals across Europe to deliver a powerful and unwavering message: overfishing must be stopped, and solutions put in place that ensure Europe’s waters are fished sustainably. Our Fish demands that the Common Fisheries Policy be properly enforced, and Europe’s fisheries effectively governed.

Our Fish calls on all EU Member States to set annual fishing limits at sustainable limits based on scientific advice, and to ensure that their fishing fleets prove that they are fishing sustainably, through monitoring and full documentation of their catch.
http://our.fish

Follow Our Fish on Twitter: @our_fish

About Seas At Risk
Seas At Risk is an umbrella organisation of environmental NGOs from across Europe that promotes ambitious policies for marine protection at European and international level. http://www.seas-at-risk.org/

Seas At Risk on Twitter: @SeasAtRisk

About WeMove.EU

WeMove.EU is a citizens’ movement, campaigning for a better Europe; for a European Union committed to social and economic justice, environmental sustainability and citizen-led democracy. We are people from all walks of life, who call Europe our home – whether we were born in Europe or elsewhere.
https://www.wemove.eu

WeMove.EU on Twitter: @wemoveEU

Notes:

Petition: https://act.wemove.eu/campaigns/save-eu-seas

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVOxQe0Zu5A

Photos: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/m6s2u2hcgaz84o2/AAD-srbLxAbl20oo-TNHqbvya?dl=0