Oceana urges UK and EU to ‘end overfishing’ of shared stocks
29th July 2021
As negotiations between the EU and UK under the Specialised Committee on Fisheries got underway on 20 July, green NGO Oceana issued a call for ‘an end to the overfishing of severely overexploited fish stocks’ in European waters.
The new committee provides a forum for discussion and agreement on fisheries management, to prepare the annual consultations through which fishing opportunities for 2022 will be decided.
Claiming that recent data published by ICES highlights ‘the critical status of a number of key fish stocks’, Oceana is urging the UK and EU to ‘agree on management strategies that will result in all stocks recovering and reaching healthy levels’.
Melissa Moore, head of UK policy at Oceana, said: “Only 43% of fish stocks shared between the UK and the EU are fished at sustainable levels. It is unacceptable that the rest of the stocks are either subject to overfishing, with stocks of important species like cod, herring and whiting at critically low levels, or else their status is simply unknown.
“For fish stocks to rebound, negotiating parties must be guided by the science. Doing otherwise will guarantee further destruction of the marine environment, deplete fish populations, and weaken resilience to climate change.”
“In June, the EU and the UK reached their first post-Brexit annual agreement concerning their shared fish populations, under the conditions established in the Trade and Co-operation Agreement,” said Javier Lopez, Oceana’s campaign director for sustainable fisheries in Europe.
“At a critical moment for ocean biodiversity and the climate, it is incumbent upon the EU and the UK to agree on effective management strategies that put an end to overfishing in their waters and ensure the sustainable exploitation of shared stocks.”
Oceana highlighted its ‘three priority areas’ for agreement between the UK and the EU:
- Multi-year management strategies must be agreed for severely overexploited fish stocks, with clear recovery targets and timeframes to achieve them
- When setting TACs for mixed fisheries, decision- makers should agree to prioritise the sustainable exploitation of the most vulnerable fish stocks
- Multi-year strategies should be agreed for the conservation and management of non-quota stocks. Data collection and scientific assessments for these stocks should be significantly improved to ensure that they are fished sustainably.
This story was taken from the latest issue of Fishing News. For more up-to-date and in-depth reports on the UK and Irish commercial fishing sector, subscribe to Fishing News here or buy the latest single issue for just £3.30 here.
