OCEAN2012 criticises EU fishing policies

The environmental coalition, OCEAN2012 has criticised excessive EU fishing subsidies ahead of an EU Fisheries Council Meeting to be held in Brussels this week.

The group is dedicated to ensuring that the 2012 EU Common Fisheries Policy is sustainable.

European Union (Photo credit: ana branca)

 

Media contact: Mike Walker, mwalker@pewtrusts.org 

Full press release:

Subsidising fishing: how many times do EU fisheries ministers want us to pay for our fish?

Ahead of an EU fisheries council meeting in Brussels on May 14, OCEAN2012 today (May 12, 2012) publishes its latest briefing on how overfishing is impacting daily lives. The briefing exposes how EU taxpayers’ money is being spent fuelling EU overfishing. Fisheries ministers are meeting to debate how future subsidies should be spent and how to reach sustainable fishing limits.

 

In EU waters 63 percent of assessed stocks in the Atlantic are overfished, 82 percent in the Mediterranean and four out of the six stocks in the Baltic. This is primarily the result of poor decision-making based on short-term considerations. And as stocks have declined subsidies have fuelled overfishing by reducing the cost of fishing while increasing the capacity of fleets to catch fish. The World Bank and FAO estimate that overfishing is costing $50billion a year globally, in the EU that is estimated to be €3.2billion for just 43 fish stocks.

“Subsidising overfishing has meant subsidising environmental and economic failure, while healthy fish stocks could mean more fishing with more employment for marginalised communities.”

Markus Knigge, spokesperson for OCEAN2012

“Subsidising overfishing has meant subsidising environmental and economic failure, while healthy fish stocks could mean more fishing with more employment for marginalised communities.” said Markus Knigge, spokesperson for OCEAN2012, a coalition of over 160 organisations dedicated to ending overfishing in the EU. “We appreciate that after so many years of mismanagement it is not easy to turn the tide; however, public funds should be directed to restoring fisheries not to fuel overfishing.” 

 

Some of the ways the public is paying for fish again and again:

 

1. Between 2000 and 2008, public subsidies of €33.5 million were spent on modernising the fleet targeting endangered bluefin tuna.
2. Annually about €850 million in EU subsidies is used to support structural measures, including vessel modernisation, but less than €50 million to support control and enforcement aid and less than €50 million for scientific data collection; and
3. Several operators engaged in illegal fishing activities continue to benefit from EU subsidies.
   
   
    This blog is written by staff at International Aquafeed Magazine which is published and supported by Perendale Publishers Limited. To get your copy of PPL's web application, 'PPLAPP' click here.

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