17 December 2007 - Brussels,
Belgium — The European Fisheries Council ought
to be sacked. That was one message from 200
Greenpeace activists from 14 European countries
this morning when they blocked the seven entrances
to the EU building where the Fisheries Council
was due to meet to determine catch levels
for 2008.
If the European Fisheries Council were a
private enterprise, its executive directors
would have been sacked long ago for inefficiency
and negligence. The Council has failed to
ensure fishing sector profitability, environmental
protection, sustainable management, or the
maintenance of fish stocks. "It's time
for new management," said Greenpeace
Oceans Campaigner Iris Menn.
The activists constructed a wall in front
of the building's main entrance bearing the
message "Shut Down until Fish Stocks
Recover." But in all likelihood, the
Fisheries Council will simply again cave in
to pressure from the fishing industry, ignore
the warnings of scientists, and encourage
the fisheries industry to continue fishing
itself to death.
The Council's consistently dismal record
provides no basis for expecting that this
year's negotiations will introduce steps towards
environmentally-sustainable fisheries in which
biodiversity and fish stocks are maintained.
And an environmentally unsustainable fishery
is not an economically sustainable fishery.
The Fisheries Council decides levels of total
allowable catches (TACs) on an annual basis.
We believe that Europe's current decision-making
arrangements are in need of a fundamental
overhaul.
"The Fisheries Council has been an utter
disaster for fisheries," said Greenpeace
EU Marine Policy Advisor Saskia Richartz.
"Unless changes are made and power is
ceded to Europe's Environment Ministers, Europe's
fisheries face a biodiversity and economic
collapse."
Since the early 1980s, incompetence on the
part of the Fisheries Council has resulted
in an alarming decline in fish stocks in European
seas. Year after year, Europe´s Fisheries
Ministers have ignored scientific advice and
recommendations from the European Commission
in repeatedly agreeing levels of TACs that
have destroyed the health of fisheries and
the biodiversity of Europe's seas. A recent
study, commissioned by the European Commission's
Directorate-General for Fisheries and Maritime
Affairs, suggests that European fisheries
are amongst the most unsustainable and least
profitable in the world.
We believe that future decisions on fishing
activities in European seas should be subject
to greater public scrutiny, and must include
the following:
Member States must create a network of large-scale
marine reserves: highly protected areas off-limits
to all extractive and destructive activities,
including fishing. The network of reserves
must be sufficiently large to sustain species
and ecological processes over time. Research
indicates that between 20 per cent and 50
per cent of sea area should be protected in
this way. The deadline by which Member States
had to complete such a network passed almost
a decade ago, in 1998. Member States, however,
have continued to reap short term fisheries
benefits without complying with the Community's
conservation laws;
All total allowable catches must be set at
or below the scientifically recommended levels.
For all fish stocks outside safe biological
limits, fishing pressure must be reduced to
very low levels and should be increased slowly
thereafter only when recovery is under way.
All stocks should eventually be managed below
their maximum sustainable yield; and
Starting from next year, national allocation
of the TACs, which must be set in accordance
with the above rules, should be made conditional
upon meeting EU marine conservation standards,
and in particular rules on marine protected
areas.
