A brass band playing the “Anthem of Europe” and a large mural of a young boy embracing a fish were part of campaign group Our Fish’s “provocative welcome” for negotiators from the European Union and Norway, who arrived in Bergen this week to decide on the 2019 fishing limits for joint fish stocks in the North Sea and Atlantic waters.
Our Fish focused its attention on Norway’s Fiskeridirektoratet (Fisheries Directorate) building in Bergen to remind delegates of their commitments to end overfishing by 2020, and to call for greater transparency during fisheries negotiations.
Officials arriving at Bergen airport may have also caught sight of images from the Fishlove campaign, which is calling for an end to overfishing and greater transparency.
“After countless clarion calls to E.U. governments to end overfishing, it is clear that they are listening neither to scientific advice nor to their citizens. But they can’t ignore the message being trumpeted here today in Bergen,” Our Fish Program Director Rebecca Hubbard said. “We are calling on the E.U. and Norway to play a different tune this year – live up to your commitments, and stop this senseless overfishing - for the good of our oceans and our people.
“Both the E.U. and Norway have signed up to international and national commitments on sustainable fishing because they know that ending overfishing is good for our ocean, economy, fishing communities and food security. But while they portray themselves as leaders in global ocean governance, behind closed-doors they agree to its continued destruction – it’s time the hypocrisy ended,” said Hubbard.
International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) scientists have advised large cuts for cod, herring, haddock, plaice, and sprats for 2019.
“Advice for such large cuts in fishing quotas come because scientists consider the stocks as unhealthy, or their natural limits as being pushed too far. If the E.U. and Norway ignore these warnings from scientists, and keep on endorsing fishing that is too hard and too fast, things will only get worse for fishers in the future,” Hubbard said. “While the E.U. and Norway appear to blame each other for setting fishing limits above sustainable levels – the E.U. can certainly only blame itself for failing to enforce its new law against discarding. Dumping thousands of tons of unwanted fish back to sea, dead and dying, will be illegal in all E.U. quota-fisheries from 1 January, 2019, including shared stocks, but with nobody watching, this wasteful activity is unlikely to stop.
Among ICES’ advice is a limit of 23,481 metric tons (MT) for cod caught in the E.U. waters of 2a, 3a and 4, down from this year’s total allowable catch (TAC) of 33,991 MT. For herring catches in E.U. waters 2a, 4 and 7d, it is advising a maximum of 291,040 MT, down from 600,588 MT. And for haddock caught in E.U. waters 2a and 4, it advises a 2019 limit of 25,494 MT, down from 41,767 MT.
“If Norway doesn’t demand remote electronic monitoring and stronger enforcement of rules at sea as part of negotiations with the EU, then they are turning a blind eye to reports of illegal, unreported discarding, and allowing the future health of their fish stocks to be undermined,” Hubbard said.
