A recent study published in the journal Science has challenged the concept of selective fishing as an efficient way to maximise the harvest of fish stocks in a sustainable way. It may be questioned, however, to what degree these results are valid and applicable for modern large-scale fisheries.
On Friday, March 30, Fish Fight will launch its Europe-wide discards ban campaign in Poland. The event will take place in front of the Polish Parliament (Sejm), and will be led by a Polish celebrity chef, Robert Makłowicz. According to Fish Fight, up to 15% of all fish caught in the Baltic Sea is discarded.
The new economics foundation (nef) recently launched their report, entitled “Jobs lost at sea”. They investigated the economic effects of overfishing and analysed its impact on employment in the EU. In the study they took 43 fish stocks in European and neighbouring waters and looked at the what the effects of managing at the maximum sustainable yield (MSY) would be in terms of additional revenue and jobs. They found that over €3 billion is lost every year due to overfishing these stocks, which could support 100,000 jobs in the industry.
In a presentation to national parliamentarians in the European Parliament, Struan Stevenson (ECR/UK) outlined his position on the reform of the Common Market Organisation (CMO), for which he is the Fisheries Committee rapporteur. Stevenson stated that his report will feature suggestions on how to reform the role of POs in fisheries management, comments on the proposed storage mechanism, as well as amendments on the consumer information provided on fish products.
On 23rd April, the Fish Fight campaign against discards will launch in Germany with an event outside the Bundestag. A series of programmes will then be broadcast on television, highlighting the wasteful fishing practices which have led to half of all the fish caught in the North Sea being thrown back dead into the sea.
In early March this year, a group of fisheries scientists, representatives from the Baltic Sea RAC and policy makers gathered in Charlottenlund, Denmark to discuss the possibilities of instituting multispecies (ecosystems approach) based advice for the Baltic. The current workshop (WKMULTBAL) was a follow up meeting to a workshop held at ICES headquarters in December last year.
A recent documentary by Joakim Odelberg (in co-operation with Emma Watson and Peter Isaksson), funded by the BalticSea2020, strikingly illustrates the severe but often neglected problem of ghost nets in the Baltic Sea.
At a Fisheries Committee meeting in the European Parliament, Commissioner Damanaki along with the rapporteurs for the four segments of the Common Fisheries Policy reform gave presentations and answered questions from delegates of national parliaments from around the EU. Damanaki gave a robust defence of the Commission’s proposals for the reform, that sought to underline why their proposals should not be diluted.
Released in late February, the hot-off-the-press report, ‘European Fisheries at a Crossroads’, is an informative introduction to the current state of affairs in European and Polish fisheries. The report is concise, yet provides a lot of detail for those intereseted in fisheries.
At a meeting in Stockholm on the external dimension of the CFP, organised by rapporteur Isabella Lövin, Javier Garat of Europêche, the largest representative of the fishing industry, called for European vessels to be given priority fishing access when the EU makes agreements with third countries.