04/05/2006 - Gothenburg,
Sweden – The North Sea, once one of the richest
seas in the world, home to giants of the ocean
such as bluefin tuna and whales, has become a
place of desolation and destruction says WWF.
As environment and transportation
ministers from eight North Sea countries and the
EU Environment Commissioner meet to discuss the
environmental impact of shipping and fisheries,
WWF is calling for an improvement to the health
of the North Sea.
“The North Sea is in urgent
need of intensive care, unable to produce natural
goods and services for society,” says Stephan
Lutter, Director of WWF’s North-East Atlantic
Marine Ecoregion Programme.
“Ministers must combat serious
impacts from shipping and fishing to give the
North Sea a real chance of recovery.”
Tthe North Sea cod stock, for
example, is on the verge of collapse, no longer
able to reproduce and recover to a viable level.
The International Council for the Exploration
of the Seas (ICES) has recommended zero catch
of North Sea cod to the European Commission, but
the council has ignored the advice and continued
adopting allowable catches and quotas.
Unregulated by-catch is also
one of the most serious problems in North Sea
fisheries, in addition to overfishing of commercial
stocks. In certain North Sea fisheries, such as
for sole and plaice, up to 80 per cent of the
catch are discarded, including juvenile fish and
invertebrate animals.
Commitments made in previous
North Sea ministerial meetings to improve fisheries
and shipping management, as well as pollution,
have been deeply flawed and poorly implemented.
Agreements have not been ratified.
North Sea Ministerial agreements
have so far been followed up internally or at
the level of the relevant Regional Seas Convention
(OSPAR). The emphasis and responsibility might
shift towards the proposed EU Marine Strategy
in the future. However, the proposed EU Directive
is unlikely to encompass, at regional level and
in legally-binding format, the objectives and
targets adopted by North Sea Conferences.
"Both shipping and fisheries
pose the most serious of threats to the North
Sea and both remain problematic despite years
of regulation and various initiatives within the
North Sea process and elsewhere," said Lutter.
"The role and weight of
marine environment protection and conservation
within future policy is unclear."
