European Union countries are failing to adequately assess fishing fleet overcapacity, according to a report published on Wednesday by the Pew Environment Group and Institute for European Environmental Policy.
“If overcapacity is one of the key issues, then we need to know how much and where it is,” said Markus Knigge, research director of the Pew Environment Group’s EU marine program.
Despite repeated requests, EU countries are failing to fulfill their legal obligation to report fleet overcapacity, making it difficult for the EU to conduct a bloc-wide assessment in an effort to prevent overfishing, said Knigge.
He added that EU Marine Affairs and Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg has singled out overcapacity as one of the Common Fisheries Policy’s (CFP) major shortcomings. As part of CFP reform, the European Commission in April published a green paper calling for drastic cuts to the EU’s 90,000-vessel fleet.
“Overcapacity is contributing to the massive depletion of valuable fish stocks, yet nobody knows how much and where it is occurring,” said Knigge. “It is time to tackle and assess it as a first step to stopping EU overfishing.”
