BBC News 13 Jul 11;
The European Commission has unveiled major plans to reform the EU's fishing industry and stop catches being wasted.
The proposal, due to take effect from 2013, would give fleets quota shares guaranteed for at least 15 years.
"Discards" will be phased out - the practice whereby up to half the catch of some fish is thrown back into the sea to avoid going above the quota.
The environmental group Oceana said the plan had "some positive" aspects but stronger measures were needed.
It called the plan "an incomplete work that does not provide the urgently needed strong solutions to restore European seas and ensure the long-term sustainability of fishing".
The Common Fisheries Policy has been in effect for 28 years, but Maritime and Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki says it has been a failure.
"There is overfishing; we have 75% overfishing of our stocks and comparing ourselves to other countries we cannot be happy," Ms Damanaki told BBC Radio Four's Today programme.
"So we have to change. Let me put it straight - we cannot afford business as usual any more because the stocks are really collapsing."
There will be hard bargaining by the European Parliament and EU member states' governments before the new policy is adopted.
Restoring stocks
The Commission says that in the Mediterranean 82% of fish stocks are overfished, while in the Atlantic the figure is 63%.
Under the new scheme, boats are expected to land all the fish caught, and the whole catch would count against quotas. This would apply to species including mackerel, herring and tuna from the beginning of 2014.
Cod, hake and sole would follow a year later, with virtually every other commercial species coming under the regulation from 2016.
The reform also includes plans to restore fish stocks over the long term and allow EU member states to set incentives for the use of selective fishing gear.
The Commission says too many detailed decisions on fisheries have been made by Brussels. It now says it wants to hand back more decision-making powers to member states, so that the industry tailors its actions to local conditions.
"Today, by virtue of the co-decision procedure, even the most detailed technical decisions... have to be taken at the highest political level in the European machinery," Ms Damanaki complained.
Outlining the new policy, she said "I want to decentralise... the choice of instrument, or instruments' mix, is up to member states, co-operating at regional level".
The plan aims to:
ensure catches are within levels that can "produce the maximum sustainable yields" by 2015
implement an "ecosystem-based approach" to limit the impact of fishing
reduce fleet overcapacity through market measures rather than subsidies
promote the development of "aquaculture activities" to ensure food security and job opportunities
develop alternative types of fish management techniques.
There has been widespread public opposition to discards across the EU, with more than half a million people signing a petition publicised by UK celebrity chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.
UK Fisheries Minister Richard Benyon called the new commission proposals "a vital first step".
"Because our fisheries are so varied, I don't believe that a one size-fits-all approach... will work effectively. There has to be flexibility to work with the industry to introduce a range of tailored measures."
Catch limits
Bertie Armstrong, head of the Scottish Fishermen's Federation, said the EU plan would mean a cut of at least 20% in the size of the Scottish fishing fleet and its crews.
The negotiations were "not going to be easy," said Markus Knigge, policy and research director for the Pew Environment Group's Brussels-based European Marine Programme.
"I do believe that most member states accept that we have to do something, but when it comes to solutions, that can be more difficult to discuss than the failures of the current policy," he told BBC News.
He said there were a number of nations unhappy about particular parts of the proposals, such as the role of scientific advice in the process of setting catch limits.
Maria Damanaki unveils EU fishing reforms
European fisheries chief hopes phasing out 'discarding' and agreeing plans with member states will preserve Europe's fish stocks
Fiona Harvey guardian.co.uk 13 Jul 11;
The biggest shake-up of European fisheries regulation in four decades was unveiled on Wednesday in Brussels, intended to preserve dwindling fish stocks.
Maria Damanaki, the EU fisheries chief, told policymakers in Brussels that strong and urgent action was needed if stocks were not to face collapse. She said: "Action is needed now to get all our fish stocks back into a healthy state to preserve them for present and future generations. Only under this precondition can fishermen continue to fish and earn a decent living out of their activities."
The central plank of her radical proposals is an attempt to ensure all European fish stocks are "at sustainable levels" by 2015 – a difficult task, as most stocks in the region are already overfished. She aims to achieve this by phasing out the wasteful practice of discarding healthy fish at sea – a perverse consequence of the current fishing quota systems – and agreeing with member states' long-term management plans for their stocks, but giving the states the freedom to decide how to implement those policies.
She is also likely to face opposition, as the reforms to the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) – the roots of which date back to the Treaty of Rome of 1957 at the founding of the European Union – will mean short-term pain for fishermen, even as they should preserve the long-term future of some.
Fishing groups have attacked her proposals in their draft form, arguing that their fleets will be unfairly penalised and that not enough attention has been given to possible solutions such as adjusting fishing gear.
But Damanaki has made it clear she will stick to her proposals. She said: "We have to manage each stock wisely, harvesting what we can but keeping the stock healthy and productive for the future. This will bring us higher catches, a sound environment and a secure seafood supply. If we get this reform right, fishermen and coastal communities will be better off in the long run. And all Europeans will have a wider choice of fresh fish, both wild and farm-produced."
The proposals also include targets and time frames to stop overfishing; ways to allow fishermen to trade their quotas with one another, which will help some fishermen to leave the industry; support measures for small-scale fisheries; better collection of data; and new rules for fish farms.
Damanaki's proposals will also replace the current annual shouting match among countries over the size of the quota they should get. At present, ministers vie for the biggest quota with a decision taken each December. But under the new plans, these annual contests would be replaced with long-term management plans, giving greater certainty for the future and less of the wrangling that can result in fisheries losing out. Day-to-day decision making would also be devolved from Brussels to the regions.
Europe's fishing fleet is too large and too efficient, according to the European commission. This has led to drastic overfishing. Chris Davies, the UK Liberal Democrat MEP, pointed to recent academic studies suggesting Europe's fish stocks were less than 10% of their post-war levels.
Damanaki has made clear in the past few months her intention to phase out the wasteful practice of discarding healthy fish, which fishermen are forced to do under the current rules, for instance if they exceed their quota or because they catch fish for which they do not hold a quota.
But she has come under pressure from fishing groups and some member states who are concerned that ending discards and forcing fishermen to land all they catch could result in lower profits for fishing crews. They could end up having to sell lower value fish or species for which there is less demand, meaning their catches may be worth less than if they could discard at will.
Damanaki has acknowledged the problem, telling a meeting of the European parliament's cross-party Fish for the Future group that some reduction in employment in fisheries was inevitable, but that without change to protect fish stocks the loss of jobs would be even greater, because Europe's seas are so depleted.
She would like help from member states to compensate fishermen for some of their lost income, and has supported pilot schemes in which fishermen would turn their boats to other uses, such as tourism or collecting plastic litter for recycling.
Member states would also be encouraged to let the owners of large vessels exchange fishing rights, because there are too many boats hunting too few fish.
Damanaki also wants to reform the fishing agreements that some member states have with developing countries, allowing EU vessels to fish there. These agreements have attracted controversy because, in extreme cases, they can stifle the growth of indigenous fisheries in poorer countries.
Davies said: "Commissioner Damanaki might have been expected to back down in the face of opposition from those who resist change, but she seems fearless and determined to push ahead with reforms that may be the saving of our seas, of the fishing industry, and of coastal communities.
"Our waters are capable of supporting many times more fish than now exist. It is not too late for the situation to be reversed, but we have now reached a crisis point. Overfishing must cease or there will be no more fish on the plate."
Some fishing representatives supported the proposals - but with reservations. Seafish, the UK's fish authority, said the industry should be closely involved in how to implement the proposals. Jon Harman, operations director, said: "[This could be] asignificant step towards long-term fisheries sustainability - as long as the details of the legislation allow for flexibility within their provisions."
Many food companies and retailers also welcomed the plans, several pledging to widen the market for less sought-after fish.
But some campaigners, including a coalition of WWF, Greenpeace and RSPB, called for the EU to go further, for instance by hastening the end of discards and putting stringent targets in place. Ruth Davis, chief policy adviser at Greenpeace, said: "With 72% of Europe's fish stocks overexploited, we desperately need an emergency response plan to rescue our fisheries and the jobs and communities they support. The CFP reform process could produce that plan, but until Europe's leaders acknowledge the urgency of the problem, and make the recovery of fish stocks central to the Common Fisheries Policy, we will be stuck with plans detailing the best way to subsidise the destruction of the Europe's fishing industry."
Richard Benyon, UK fisheries minister, said the new proposals were "just the first steps".
EU Proposes Overhaul Of Failing Fisheries Policy
Charlie Dunmore PlanetArk 14 Jul 11;
Europe's fisheries chief called for an overhaul of the European Union's failing fisheries policies on Wednesday, and warned those EU countries that may seek to resist reform that business as usual is not an option.
The European Commission has estimated 75 percent of EU stocks are currently overfished, and a third of the bloc's fleet will become commercially unviable in the long term without decisive action to tackle overfishing.
With the equivalent of 265,000 full-time workers employed in the EU fishing and processing industries, the sector wields considerable political power in some countries, which have opposed previous efforts by Brussels to reduce catches.
"The Commission underlines that our current policy does not work anymore," Greek EU Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki told a news conference in Brussels to present her proposals.
"We cannot afford business as usual. Maybe in the years before it was easier for the Commission, for governments and for the sector to close our eyes.
"But we cannot do it anymore, because if we do, our children will see fish not on their plates, but only in pictures."
Her proposals included a reduction in fishing for the most over-exploited stocks for a few years to allow them to recover by 2015 to a level where fishermen can catch and earn more than they do today -- a level known as maximum sustainable yield.
To achieve this, the Commission proposed an end to the annual horse-trading between EU governments over fishing quotas, which in the past has resulted in catch limits being set above the maximum levels recommended by scientists.
Instead, where possible, EU governments should jointly agree longer-term regional plans based on scientific advice, which fix quotas for one or more fish stocks for several years at a time.
Damanaki also proposed a ban on fisherman throwing unwanted fish overboard, known as "discards," which the Commission estimates happens to almost a quarter of all catches.
FLEET SIZE
Environmental campaigners welcomed the Commission's proposals to reduce overfishing, but said the plans were too weak when it came to addressing the main driver of overfishing -- the overcapacity of Europe's fishing fleet.
The European Union has the world's third-largest fishing fleet after China and Peru, with a total catch worth 8.2 billion euros ($11.7 billion) in 2007.
With more than 80,000 EU-registered vessels competing to land dwindling numbers of fish, rows over fishing quotas regularly break out between major fishing nations such as Spain, France and Britain.
"Discards are a disgrace. The best way to tackle the problem is to stop overfishing (and) slim down the fishing fleet," said Greenpeace fisheries campaigner Saskia Richartz.
Damanaki said the biggest challenge would be to win support for her proposals by EU governments and lawmakers, who must now jointly approve the plans before they can become law from 2013.
"My difficulties now begin, because we have to persuade the member state governments and the sector, because without their cooperation we have nothing. The negotiations will be very hard," Damanaki said.
(Editing by Pete Harrison and Sophie Hares)
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