Press release - December 14, 2009
EU fisheries ministers will, by tomorrow, agree on the amount of catches per fish stock that each member state can take in the North Sea and wider Atlantic in 2010. This includes agreement on the total allowable catch for cod and the rubber-stamping of an agreement on catch levels for Atlantic bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean and North Atlantic (1). Both stocks are depleted and, in the case of bluefin tuna, the species is in danger of extinction.
"Europe's fishing fleets are destructive and wasteful, so it is not surprising that every year more species of fish collapse," said Saskia Richartz, Greenpeace EU oceans policy director. "Ministers dish out excessive fishing quotas to please the fishing industry, but the result is that too many fishermen are chasing too few fish."
The EU's large and powerful fishing fleets are able to catch two to three times more than would be sustainable. A significant proportion of this catch is fished, killed and then wasted, because fishermen throw overboard less valuable fish and fish caught without a quota. For instance, scientists report that 94% of the one-year-old immature cod in the North Sea is caught and then discarded as waste. In fact, in 2008, the same amount of North Sea cod was caught and discarded at sea as was brought to shore and consumed.
"The EU is in the process of reforming its fisheries rules, but the continued depletion of cod, tuna and other stocks suggests that European governments are not serious about their commitment to sustainable fishing and marine protection,"
said Richartz. "To protect fish and the marine environment, the EU should prohibit fishing inside a network of marine reserves and reduce the size of its fishing fleet by half."
Notes:
[1] Scientists have advised governments that Atlantic bluefin tuna now classifies as an endangered species, with current population levels below 15% of their original size. Cod stocks in the North Sea and parts of the Northeast Atlantic are considered overfished at levels that lead to lower reproduction.