In an address to the European Commission on Wednesday, European Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki said 30 percent to 40 percent of Europe’s fishing fleets are not making enough money to stay afloat in the long term, emphasizing the need to halt the subsidies that lead to overfishing.
Damanaki said the European Commission will propose to systematically reduce catch limits for fisheries with “insufficient scientific data.”
“To phase out overfishing we must manage fish stocks so they can rebuild and provide the highest long-term average catches that the sea can provide,” she said. “This will not only improve the state of Europe’s fish stocks and lower the impact of fishing on the environment. It will also improve the economic profitability of Europe’s catching sector.”
Damanaki’s comments come less than two months before a proposed Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) is due to be adopted by commissioners when they meet in mid-July. From there, the proposed CFP will go to Parliament. At the European Seafood Exposition in Brussels early this month, Damanaki said delivery of a reformed CFP is “the main priority” for 2012.
On Wednesday, the EC published a report on the progress the CFP has achieved over the pasty few years. The report lays out out how the EC intends to act on the scientific advice it receives on the status of fish stocks when proposing catch limits. Damanaki said the status of fish stocks in European waters is “slowly improving,” but the majority of stocks are still without sufficient scientific data, largely due to inadequate reporting by member states.
She added that reducing catch limits for fisheries with insufficient scientific data would encourage better data collection by member states and phase out overfishing.
The EC is trying to get fisheries back to “maximum sustainable yield” by 2015. “We have made some progress towards this objective. Mainly in Atlantic and northern regions, less in Mediterranean. But progress is too slow. I really want to see us reach the objectives we have set,” said Damanaki.
“The scientific institutions can give us clearer advice. I believe we should set the quotas accordingly. Where Member States have not provided the right information for scientists to do their work, we don't have a lot of choices,” she added.
Click here to watch Damanaki’s speech at the European Seafood Exposition.
