Members of the Norwegian seafood industry spoke out this week about the 6 February European Parliament vote to update the EU’s common fisheries policy (CFP), an update that has already drawn praise from environmental groups.
On Wednesday, the parliament voted 502 to 137 to enact the changes. Now, the EU must seek the endorsement of member states’ fisheries ministers to put the new regulations into place.
Johan Kvalheim, director of the Norwegian Seafood Council for the U.K. and France, acknowledged that stricter rules banning discards and setting upper limits on quotas would be difficult for the seafood industry throughout Europe.
But, he noted, Norway put similar rules into place in the 1980s to control their cod and haddock stocks, and today the Norwegian fishing industry is better for it. Kvalheim said he urged the E.U. to learn from Norway’s example.
“We took huge steps to turns things around, and now most Norwegian fishermen would say to their European counterparts that these drastic measures did pay off,” he said.
Audun Maråk, managing director of Fiskebåt, the Norwegian fisherman’s association, agreed that Europe should follow Norway’s lead.
"The Norwegian fishing industry has for a long time been impatient regarding the overcapacity of the E.U. fleet and its discards,” he said. “Norway has for a long time been practicing a discard ban and sustainable harvesting of the stocks, and has been urging the E.U. to adapt similar policies."
Mitch Tonks, a popular U.K. restauranteur and longtime supporter of the Norwegian seafood industry, called the new CFP “good news for U.K. fish lovers,” and also acknowledged that Norwegian sustainable fishing is a good model for the rest of Europe.
“Norway’s fishing industry is internationally regarded as the world leader in sustainable fisheries management and has the largest growing cod stock in the world — yet we hear nothing of this in the U.K.,” he said. “It just shows that it is possible to satisfy a fish loving nation — just like ours — while managing to retain a sustainable fishing industry for generations to come.”
