Maria Damanaki, Europe’s new fisheries commissioner, on Monday told European Union member states that she’s striving to bring fishing limits to sustainable levels in 2011.
In a new report regarding fishing opportunities in EU waters next year, Damanaki stressed that quota levels “must respect” the EU’s sustainability commitments. Overfishing and stock depletion are due, in part, to allowing too much catch and effort, with most stocks still overfished, underlined the report, but a move toward maximum sustainable yield should encourage and promote a change toward responsible fishing.
The communication sets off discussions on fishing opportunities within the EU and lays out how the European Commission intends to act on scientific advice on the status of fish stocks when proposing catch limits and fishing quotas for next year. All stakeholders will have the opportunity to participate in the debate. And in December EU member states will hammer out an agreement on fishing quotas for the following year.
Critics of this setup suggest nations’ interests take precedence over sustainability and overfishing issues, with politicians paying little heed to the advice from scientists regarding the status of fish stocks.
But on Monday, Damanaki emphasized that she wants to see a tougher method applied to setting fishing quotas and days at sea to meet international standards and progress toward “responsible fishing.”
“I want to be clear that the quota levels set must respect all the EU’s commitments to sustainability,” she said.
According to the report, total allowable catches (TACs) have been set at much higher levels than those advised by scientists. The EC uses scientific advice, available in June or July, from two international committees when drawing up annual fishing quotas: the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, based in Copenhagen, and the Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries. According to the EC, in 2010 the gap between real and suggested levels fell from about 47 percent to 34 percent.
But the EC warns that for 42 fish stocks a lack of data has meant that no advice at all were actually possible.
“There are more stocks where scientists have not provided advice because of concerns about the quality of data or other reasons,” read the report, adding that these include megrims, cod and sole in the Celtic Sea and sole in the western English Channel.
Uta Bellion, director of the Pew Environment Group’s EU marine program, welcomed Damanaki’s insistence that scientific advice be followed when setting the TAC for EU fisheries.
But she warned the communication falls short of the Europe’s commitment to the United Nations to manage deep-sea fisheries sustainably. The basis for TACs and quotas of deep-sea fisheries in the northeast Atlantic “must be the scientific advice that all species, including endangered species of deep-sea sharks, are outside safe biological limits,” said Bellion.
“To propose anything less represents a serious failure on the part of the commission to follow through on the EU’s commitment,” she said.
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