Many vessels in the EU fishing fleet are old and inefficient. Cooling and transport consume a lot of energy. The search is now on for ways to make EU fisheries more sustainable.
So far, EU fisheries have not been a green industry. The fleet of more than 61,000 ships is outdated. The average age is almost 30 years, the engines are not very efficient, cooling and transport are also very energy-intensive. The industry is also vulnerable to sharply fluctuating fuel prices for marine diesel.
So how can European fisheries become more sustainable? To this end, the EU Commission presented an action plan in February. She wants to ensure that fisheries also make their contribution to the European Green Deal, with which the EU wants to become climate-neutral by 2050.
energy efficiency should be the focus
There are several starting points. The greatest opportunities would arise with ship propulsion systems and other energy consumers on shipping vessels. Because the “energy efficiency of these other consumers in processing ships or refrigeration systems” must be the focus, says the CDU politician Niclas Herbst, member of the Fisheries Committee of the EU Parliament.
Last year, for example, the first French oyster barge with an electric drive set sail in Brittany. Hybrid ships with diesel-electric engines can sometimes emit up to 60 percent less CO2. The Commission intends to further support this development with its action plan. A modified design of the ships could also help to make the industry more environmentally friendly.
“With alternative fuels, the energy density is much lower than with diesel and the tanks simply have to be larger,” explains Herbst. There is also a platform set up by the EU Commission last month where ideas can be collected.
meeting of the EUMinister of Fisheries
Vigo in Galicia will also be about ideas for an energy transition in the fisheries. The responsible EU ministers are meeting at the invitation of the Spanish Council Presidency. It is an informal meeting to exchange ideas on how the energy transition in fisheries should work – no resolutions are planned.
An idea put forward by the EU Commission had already triggered a great deal of resistance. By 2030, fuel-intensive bottom trawling is to be phased out in European marine protected areas such as the Wadden Sea in the North Sea. This fishing method involves plowing up the seabed. In the process, C02 is also released from sediments. This reduces the effect of sea floors as natural carbon sinks.
criticism of plans
At the last meeting of agriculture ministers in June, Federal Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir from the Greens, who is also responsible for fisheries, criticized the commission’s plans as going too far.
No blanket ban on trawling, but an assessment of bottom fishing for the actual environmental impact. It is also good that environmental and fisheries legislation should be better coordinated in future.
Cem Özdemir had put himself in place to protect the shrimp fishermen, who have been storming against the plans for months. They fear for their existence.
They also argue that their fishing methods are actually gentle. Ska Keller from the Greens, also a member of the Fisheries Committee of the European Parliament, advocates practical and tailor-made solutions.
It is important that everyone sits down and sees what exactly can be done, depending on the situation on site, with particularly sensitive habitats on the seabed. “You can achieve a lot together if you are clear about the goal that we want to preserve biodiversity,” emphasizes Keller.
Preserving biodiversity in the EU
In order to preserve biodiversity, the EU wants to put at least 30 percent of the sea areas under effective protection. She made this known at the International Biodiversity Conference in Montreal, Canada. So far, however, according to the Commission, only twelve percent of the EU seas are protected areas, and only a fraction of them are strictly protected.