Last week, the European Commission released a proposal to protect vulnerable ecosystems in the high seas. Following the EU position at UN General Assembly negotiations on the prohibition of deep-sea bottom-trawling on the high seas, the Commission now proposes to give Member States the responsibility to assess vulnerability and fishing plans when issuing fishing licenses for areas of the high seas not under any sort of regional management.
The Commission’s proposal on the protection of vulnerable marine ecosystems in the high seas from the adverse impacts of bottom fishing gears (COM(2007)605) seeks to implement parts of a 2006 UN General Assembly Resolution. The UN resolution requires fishing nations to protect sensitive marine ecosystems from bottom fishing in areas beyond their national jurisdiction, such as international waters of the high seas. The EU fleet is responsible for a large proportion of these destructive fishing practices, consisting primarily of Spanish flagged vessels fishing in the Southwest Atlantic close to the Patagonian shelf.
The most commonly used fishing method is bottom-trawling, which involves dragging weighted nets across the seabed. Deep-sea bottom-trawling is widely considered to be the most destructive of all fishing methods, as many of the ecosystems and organisms affected are sensitive, extremely slow-growing and may take hundreds of years to recover. Because of this vulnerability, scientists and environmental NGOs have been calling for their urgent protection through a complete ban of high seas bottom-trawling for years.
The UN resolution agreed in December 2006 was a compromise solution, giving regional fisheries management organisations (RFMOs) the responsibility for protecting vulnerable ecosystems within their jurisdiction and calling on members to take direct action only on areas of the high seas without any joint management scheme.
The Commission’s proposal, therefore, only deals with EU fisheries conducted in areas where no international fisheries management takes place. It does not address destructive fishing within Community waters, nor in areas where regional management organisations exist or are being set up, such as the North Atlantic. This means that vast areas of the ocean are left more or less unprotected. Nor does it cover vessels based in EU ports but flagged under other countries, such as a number of Spanish bottom-trawlers based in Vigo but flying the flag of the Falklands.
According to the proposal, management of deep sea fisheries will large be left to the EU member states and linked to the issueing of special fishing permits. When applying for a permit, a vessel has to submit a fishing plan setting out where it will be fishing, which species it will target , the depth at which it will fish and a bathymetric profile of the seabed in the area. The authorities will then have to assess the fishing plan and its potential impacts on any vulnerable marine ecosystems, relying on ”the best scientific infromation available”. A precautionary approach should be taken when issuing permits so, when in doubt, no permit should be given without appropriate amendments to the fishing plan.
The proposal also sets out a few clear limitations. Use of bottom gears at depths beyond 1,000 metres shall be prohibited. Fishing vessels encountering vulnerable marine ecosystems will be required to cease fishing immediately and will only be allowed to resume fishing 5 nautical miles or more away from the site. The responsible authorities should be informed of the location of the ”encounter”, and may then decide to close the area for fishing with bottom gears. All vessels will also be required to use satellite-based Vessel Monitoring Systems (VMS) as well as scientific observers onboard.
Member States will be required to report to the Commission on the implementation of the Regulation every 6 months. The Commission will then prepare a report to the European Parliament and the Council before June 2010, including proposals for any necessary amendments.
A regulation addressing the protection of vulnerable ecosystems in the high seas is most welcome. However, the proposal raises a number of questions in terms of its implementation. As knowledge of the location and extent of vulnerable marine ecosystems at the high seas is far from complete, how are Member States going to be able to properly assess the fishing plans submitted? A lot will be required from the observers onboard of the vessels and their complete indepence from the vessel owner and its crew, as vessel monitoring systems can be tampered with and fishing depth, location and any encounters will be extremely difficult to control at the high seas.
Also, with a history of less than perfect national reporting on regulations already in place, will the relevant Member States keep up with the biannual reporting system and do this in a correct and prompt manner?
In addition, further measures will have to be adopted at international and EU level to ensure that all areas are protect from the impacts of bottom trawling and not just those outside the remits of regional management bodies. A number of isolated closed areas here and there will not provide sufficient protection.
Lastly, it should be reiterated that deep-sea fish stocks are also particularly vulnerable to overfishing, due to the characteristic slow growth and reproductive rates. It has been suggested that they may not be a suitable target of any sustained commercial fishing, and EU management of deep-sea fish stocks still leaves a lot to be desired.