Expand marine protected areas and prohibit trawling, better counter overexploitation, less energy-consuming boats… the European Commission has presented its plan to “green” the fishing sector. Ten years after the major reform of the Common Fisheries Policy, “structural transformations” are essential to reduce the environmental impact, while guaranteeing the profitability of the sector and its carbon neutrality by 2050, acknowledged the European Commissioner Virginius Sinkevicius.
A third of the stocks is still victim of overfishing in the North-East Atlantic (against some 70% in the 2000s), some 85% of the stocks in the Mediterranean remain overexploited. The obligation to land all catches, aimed at limiting “accidental” catches thrown back into the sea, remains little applied according to Brussels.
The “action plan” unveiled on Tuesday therefore calls on states to set their annual catch quotas in a more transparent manner and respecting the maximum levels recommended by scientists. Above all, States will be required to adopt measures to “gradually eliminate” bottom trawling by 2030 in marine protected areas (currently 12% of European waters, 30% targeted by 2030), regardless of their depth. Each country will have to establish its roadmap by March 2024. Brussels will assess them, before proposing new legislation if necessary.
The use of mobile bottom gear “remains very widespread”
The EU has already banned trawling below 800m since 2016, to help restore vulnerable seabed ecosystems with rich biodiversity. But the use of mobile bottom gear (trawls, dredges, gillnets, longlines, pots, etc.) “remains very widespread”, in 80% to 90% of the exploitable areas of the North-East Atlantic and “in many Site (s Natura2000 and other protected areas”, deplores the European executive.
Enough to compromise the objectives of the Twenty-Seven in terms of climate and biodiversity: Brussels denounces a practice that consumes a lot of fuel and emits a lot of CO2, which by scraping the funds destroys ecosystems which themselves constitute carbon sinks, weakens populations of fish that breed there, and encourages “disproportionate” incidental catches due to lack of selectivity. The Commission also asks the States to extend the “marine protected areas” to achieve the objective of 30% of marine space set in the European biodiversity plan, and to establish limits on accidental catches for certain vulnerable species (dolphins of the Bay of Biscay, porpoises, rays, etc.).
7,000 ships in danger according to the fishermen’s federation
The European Bottom Fishing Alliance (EBFA), which represents 20,000 fishermen from 14 countries, judges that the ban on trawling in protected areas will “endanger 7,000 vessels” corresponding to “25% of the volumes landed in the EU and 38% of the total revenue of the European fleet”. “The only result will be to displace fishing efforts, increasing the fuel consumed and the undesirable repercussions on stocks”, or even encourage the EU to import more fish, insists its president Ivan Lopez. Conversely, the NGO Oceana welcomes the measure but is concerned about the timetable, observing that the EU will tolerate bottom trawling for another seven years in protected areas.
Finally, Brussels details its ambition to make fishing boats and gear less fuel-intensive and to encourage their switch to clean energies (hydrogen, biofuels, electricity, etc.), a “difficult and gradual transition” which will be discussed “in coordination”. with States and fishermen. In addition to the environmental impact, the objective is to reduce dependence on fossil fuels: “Marine diesel prices have more than doubled in 2022, with an energy bill equivalent to 35% of the sector’s revenues, compared to 13% in 2020” , explained Virginijus Sinkevicius.