According to a recent YouGov poll, there is overwhelming public support in France for reforming the nation’s fisheries quota system, with 86 percent of French citizens calling for more fishing opportunities to go toward small-scale and low-impact fishers and 85 percent favoring fewer quotas being allocated to industrial-sized vessels.
NGO Oceana, which commissioned the poll, said the findings should put pressure on policymakers attending “Assises de la pêche et des produits de la mer” – a national forum held 18 and 19 September in the coastal city of Boulogne-sur-Mer that is bringing together leaders from the public and private sectors to address the challenges facing the French fishing industry.
“The results of the poll shows that French citizens want more quotas to be allocated to small-scale fishers, rather than to industrial vessel operators that have historically fished the most,” Oceana Deputy Vice President in Europe Vera Coelho told SeafoodSource. “It is a clear signal to the government that the allocation system needs to change.”
The poll – conducted on a sample of over 1,000 respondents meant to be representative of the French population as a whole – found that people perceive the current allocation system as unfair and support greater transparency on how the government distributes fishing quotas.
Among the poll’s other findings, 82 percent of respondents stated they valued the importance of protecting local jobs, and 86 percent said they believed that destructive and unselective fishing methods are incompatible with a healthy ocean. Some 83 percent of those polled also expressed a desire for the French government to be more transparent about how it allocates fishing quotas, and the same number want small-scale fishers to play a bigger role in relevant decision-making processes.
Additionally, Oceana insists that handing more quota to small-scale fishers, who typically employ more environmentally friendly fishing practices, would also align better with the European Union’s Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), particularly Article 17, which states “when allocating the fishing opportunities available to them … Member States shall use transparent and objective criteria including those of an environmental, social, and economic nature.”
“Member States shall endeavor to provide incentives to fishing vessels deploying selective fishing gear or using fishing techniques with reduced environmental impact, such as reduced energy consumption or habitat damage,” Article 17 goes on to say.
Currently, France predominantly allocates fishing opportunities to its fleet based on past catch history, with the system, thus, tending to favor industrial over small-scale operations.
France’s small-scale fishers comprise around 70 percent of the nation’s fleet and half the employment in the sector but account for just around one-fifth of France’s total catch.
Potentially signaling some change coming down the pipeline, France’s Directorate General for Maritime Affairs, Fisheries, and Aquaculture (DGAMPA) has been testing a pilot project that increases the weighting of environmental and socioeconomic criteria on a small share – less than 2 percent – of national quotas while reducing the weighting of past catch history in quota allocation.
Coelho said the project marks an important step toward a fairer allocation system, adding that France should now extend this approach to all quotas, thereby “progressively increasing the weighting in favor of job creation and of fishing practices” that have a minimal impact on the marine environment.
Opening a public consultation on quota allocation would provide a perfect opportunity to achieve this, she added, and better align with both French citizens’ expectations and the objectives of Europe’s CFP.
However, the pilot project is still in its pre-implementation phase, and French officials have given it a very limited scope in order to assess the results before expanding.
Even if the pilot project is deemed successful, France’s decentralized quota management system makes it so that most of the responsibility for allocating fishing quotas lies in the hands of producer organizations.
Oceana said because of that, expanding the pilot quota scheme would require extensive coordination with these organizations and alignment on new criteria. Therefore, the NGO conceded that any changes are likely to be accompanied by resistance from parts of the fishing sector, particularly if they are perceived as threatening established practices or interests.
Nevertheless, Oceana highlighted that the expectations of French citizens and E.U. regulations make it clear that there is a need for change.
“Oceana is calling on the government to be more transparent and to systematically consult with fishers, especially small-scale ones, prior to making allocation decisions,” Coelho said. “Transparency would also be improved by the government publishing its methodology and criteria for allocation decisions, particularly when producer organizations distribute quotas among their members.”
