01
Jul 2008 - Luxembourg/Brussels – Environmental
organisations Greenpeace, Seas at Risk and
WWF are disappointed about today’s decision
by the Court of First Instance not to protect
the waters around the Portuguese Azores
against a significant increase in commercial
fishing. The region supports a diverse range
of marine life, including turtles, sharks,
whales and dolphins and deep-sea corals,
and is especially vulnerable to intensive
fishing activities like trawling and longlining.
The Court has ruled
in favour of a 2003 decision by the Council
of Ministers to open one of Europe’s best
preserved deep-sea environments to the fishing
fleets of all EU member states. Previously,
these waters were only fished by vessels
from the Azores and few from mainland Portugal.
The three environmental
organisations have been intervening in support
of a case brought to the European Court
of Justice by the Autonomous Region of the
Azores. The latter has asked the Court to
overturn a Council decision that provides
open access to one of Europe’s last deep-sea
wildernesses, without at the same time limiting
their activities and use of fishing gear.
“The people of the Azores
have used small vessels and traditional
fishing methods for generations without
endangering fish stocks or the environment.
Their more sustainable fisheries are now
threatened by large-scale competition. Spanish
longliners, licensed to fish in Azorean
waters, for example, have increased from
zero to at least 140 vessels in only 2 years.”
says Stephan Lutter of WWF.
“We are deeply disappointed
that the Court has decided that the case
brought by the Azores and NGOs is inadmissible.
The consequence is that the Azores’ unique
marine life remains vulnerable to increasing
fishing pressure.” adds Monica Verbeek of
Seas at Risk
The three environmental
organisations are concerned that the 2003
decision to grant access to the EU’s large
fishing fleets has led to a detrimental
increase in fishing. While the Council of
Ministers banned bottom trawl fisheries
around the Azores in 2004, longliners, which
target swordfish, dramatically increased
since 2003. This fishing method is known
to have a significant problem with accidental
catches of turtles and sharks. Since 2003,
several thousand loggerhead turtles, which
rely on the Azores' waters as their feeding
and nursery grounds, have been killed by
EU vessels and increasing fishing pressure
will further exacerbate this problem.
“The Court’s ruling
has primarily considered legal and not ecological
aspects. It is therefore crucial that Spain
and any other EU member states that has
vessels fishing in the area makes an immediate
assessment of how their individual fisheries
impact on ocean ecosystems around the Azores.”
says Saskia Richartz of Greenpeace.
“Unless they can prove
that no negative impact occurs, EU member
states should prohibit their vessels from
fishing around the Azores.”
On 23rd of June, the
Council of Ministers adopted rules that
will apply to bottom fisheries in certain
deep-sea areas on the high seas. These require
vessels to carry observers and Member States
to perform impact assessments before authorising
any fishing activities in such deep-sea
areas (4). While these rules do not cover
the waters of the Azores, similar rules
should also be adopted and applied to vessels
fishing in the deep-sea waters of the Azores.
Notes to editors
• The Azores is the most isolated archipelago
in the North-East Atlantic and forms part
of the volcanic mid-ocean ridge. Averaging
3000 metres in depth, the waters around
the Azores contain vast undersea mountain
ranges – seamounts – deep water coral reefs
and volcanic hydrothermal vents that are
rare in European waters. The deep water
commercial fish species found around the
Azores are long-lived and slow to reproduce
and even modest fishing pressure can seriously
deplete stocks.
• The Court ruled that the Autonomous Region
of the Azores does not have the legal right
to bring such a case to the Courts and rejected
some of the more detailed arguments on the
basis of there not being appropriate proof.
The contested Council decision relates to
the adoption of Council Regulation (EC)
No 1954/2003 of 4 November 2003 on the management
of the fishing effort relating to certain
Community fishing areas and resources and
modifying Regulation (EC) No 2847/93 and
repealing Regulations (EC) No 685/95 and
(EC) No 2027/95, OJ L 289 – also known as
the Western Waters Regulation. The ruling
can be found on http://www.richardbuxton.co.uk/v3.0/?q=node/343.
• The use of bottom trawls had been prohibited
in Azorean waters prior to the opening of
the fishery to all European vessels in 2003.
Subsequently, as a result of massive protest
from scientists, local stakeholders and
NGOs, the Council decided to temporarily
ban trawling around the Azores in 2004,
and permanently prohibit trawling in 2005,
by adopting Council Regulation (EC) No 1568/2005
of 20 September 2005 amending Regulation
(EC) No 850/98 as regards the protection
of deep-water coral reefs from the effects
of fishing in certain areas of the Atlantic
Ocean – also known as the Atlantic Coral
Regulation.
• On the 23rd June 2008 the Council adopted
a Regulation on the protection of vulnerable
marine ecosystems in the high seas from
the adverse impacts of bottom fishing gears,
based on a Commission proposal (COM(2007)605).
Stephan Lutter, International Marine Policy
Officer
WWF-Germany
+ More
Azores faces fishing
out after court appeal fails
03 Jul 2008 - A Court
ruling has cleared the way for even more
intensive fishing of one of the Atlantic’s
most diverse deep sea habitats.
“The people of the Azores
have used small vessels and traditional
fishing methods for generations without
endangering fish stocks or the environment,”
said Stephan Lutter of WWF Germany.
“Now the number of Spanish
longliners licensed to fish in Azorean waters
has increased from zero to at least 140
vessels in only 2 years.”
After the European Council
of Ministers decided in 2003 to open the
region up to the fishing fleets of all EU
member states, the decision was appealed
to the Court of First Instance of the European
Communities by the Autonomous Region of
the Azores, with the support of Greenpeace,
Seas at Risk and WWF.
The Azores is the most
isolated archipelago in the North-East Atlantic
and forms part of the volcanic mid-ocean
ridge. Averaging 3000 metres in depth, the
waters around the Azores contain vast undersea
mountain ranges – seamounts – deep water
coral reefs and volcanic hydrothermal vents
that are rare in European waters. The deep
water commercial fish species found around
the Azores are long-lived and slow to reproduce
and even modest fishing pressure can seriously
deplete stocks.
Tuesday’s court ruling
marks the failure to overturn the 2003 decision,
with the Court of First Instance citing
the lack of legal status of the Azores to
bring forth such a case. The latter have
pledged to appeal though, in an effort to
protect their region from the devastation
caused by such intensive fishing.
“We are deeply disappointed
that the Court has decided that the case
brought by the Azores and NGOs is inadmissible.
The consequence is that the Azores’ unique
marine life remains vulnerable to increasingly
intensive fishing practices.” saidMonica
Verbeek of Seas at Risk.
While the Council of
Ministers banned bottom trawling (a particularly
intensive and damaging form of fishing)
in the fisheries around the Azores in 2004,
the number of longliners targeting swordfish
has increased dramatically since 2003. Longlining
causes significant loss of life to non-target
species such as turtles and sharks, while
also devastating deep-sea corals.
Since the opening up
of the Azores fisheries, several thousand
loggerhead turtles, which rely on the Azores'
waters as their feeding and nursery grounds,
have been killed by EU vessels.
“The Court’s ruling
has primarily considered legal and not ecological
aspects. It is therefore crucial that Spain
and any other EU member states that have
vessels fishing in the area make an immediate
assessment of how their individual fisheries
impact on ocean ecosystems around the Azores.”
Said Saskia Richartz of Greenpeace.
“Unless they can prove
that no negative impact occurs, EU member
states should prohibit their vessels from
fishing around the Azores.”
On 23rd of June, the
Council of Ministers adopted rules that
will apply to bottom fisheries in certain
deep-sea areas on the high seas. These will
require vessels to carry observers on board,
and for Member States to perform impact
assessments before authorising any fishing
activities in such deep-sea areas. However,
these rules do not currently apply to the
Azores, though adoption of similar measures
would go some way to maintaining the sustainability
and stability of the region.
