For fish’s sake, Commissioner, what’s it gonna take?
From Saskia, one of our political advisors in Brussels
Last week the EU Commissioner for Fisheries and Maritime Affairs, the EU’s top official on all things fishy, had one of those naked moments, when he had to admit that the EU is not only doing bad, but doing worse than any comparable country, including the USA, Australia and New Zealand, in managing its fisheries.
I suppose none of us needed any further proof of this governments’ failings when it comes to managing European fisheries, but just in case you have missed some of the recent news:
-- The official figures of the European Union’s statistical office report that 80% of fish stocks are fished outside sustainable levels.
-- Last year, an expert study commissioned by the European Commission, the body charged with overseeing fisheries management in the EU, called the EU’s fisheries policy “an archaic form of governance […that has] allowed the satisfaction of demands by the present generation to compromise the ability of future generations to meet their needs from the living resources of Europe's seas."
-- The European Court of Auditors – the official body that audits the financial accounts of EU institutions - warned that it found "serious inadequacies" in the application of measures. In addition, the Commissioner last week reported that some EU Member States say that "the cost to their national budget of managing and subsidising fisheries now surpasses the economic value of the catches". In short, European fisheries are not only unsustainable and damaging to the environment, they are a money-losing business that costs the tax payers..
So, if this is what the experts and politicians have come to realise, what’s it gonna take to change the politics?
Many of the solutions have been outlined, and it’s hardly rocket science: we need to set aside areas of the ocean, in which no fishing, nor any other damaging activity, can take place (marine reserves), we need to reduce the number of fishing vessels that are chasing such few fish, we must stop using destructive fishing practices, be more selective and eliminate those pirates that take fish illegally.
Please join the call for a global network of Marine Reserves.
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