In the Sunday issue of Sweden’s major daily news paper “Dagens Nyheter”, the General Director of the Swedish board of fisheries, Axel Wenblad, along with his colleagues Johan Löwenander-Davidsson and Bengt Strömblom, suggest national actions such as downsizing of the fishing fleet and stronger control efforts in order to recover dwindling fish stocks.
The Swedish Board of Fisheries will strive towards decreasing the total amount of fishing vessels, increase control efforts, draft new national rules for closed periods during spawning, implement closed areas, as well as demand more selective gear. The basis for this proposal are the 2007 reports by Sissenwine and Symes and the EU court of auditors revealing the failure of the CFP to achieve long term sustainable exploitation of European fish stocks.
In a debate article published Sunday 27 January Wenblad and his colleagues inter alia states: “Since the EU is not taking the responisbility to save dwindling fish stocks, we have to…The management of single fish stocks cannot be dependent on political negotiations, enabling bidding over one another…Further, it should be up to the EU-Commisson and Member State experts, biologists and others to make sure that it [sustainable exploitation] happens”.
The debate article suggests that fisheries policy should be more integrated with environmental policy, where the key word is the ecosystem approach, as fisheries are known to heavily influence marine ecosystems.
The decommissioning of the Swedish fishing fleet with as much as 50%, should be made through scrapping payments, with money from the European Fisheries Fund. The Swedish Minister for Fisheries and Agriculture, Eskil Erlandsson, supports the proposal by the Swedish Board of Fisheries. “I am positive to what the Swedish Board of Fisheries suggests in order to improve marine biodiversity…However, one should remember that these actions only concern Sweden and Swedish waters. Meaning that efforts targeting our neighbouring countries must continue, and they are”, says Erlandsson to Dagens Nyheter. The debate article says NGOs and consumer organisations play an important role in pushing other Member States in the right direction. “Somebody needs to lead the way and show what actions work, in order for others to follow”, Erlandsson continues.
The Swedish cod fisherman Henrik Torkelsson in positive to a down sizing of the Swedish fishing fleet; “yes, it is absolutely necessary, I have claimed this for a long time. We are way too many fishermen today for the existing quotas. It is better to have a few fishermen living on a reasonable and legal catch, than more vessels fishing without any profit”, says Torkelsson to Dagens Nyheter.
Isabella Lövin author of the book “tyst hav (eng: silent seas)” is very positive to the Swedish Board of Fisheries’ proposal. “Politicians should not be able to negotiate the EU fisheries policy. They shall set up goals and it should be the task of the experts and biologists to make sure that the goals are reached”, says Löwin to Dagens Nyheter.