GREENPEACE has today described the current fishing quota system as "a disaster for fish stocks, a disaster for fishermen and a disaster for conservation".
Responding to news that "massive" quantities of cod and other fish species in European waters are being discarded because of the system, Greenpeace Oceans campaigner Oliver Knowles said: “It’s time to abandon this madness and introduce a new approach to fisheries management – one based on controlling the number of days fisherman can spend at sea and introducing large marine reserves which provide fish stocks with the space to recover.”
Greenpeace proposes a new approach which:
1) Abandons the rigid quota system and replaces it with effort controls to reduce overall days at sea.
2) Makes further reductions in overall fleet capacity
3) Establishes large scale marine reserves closed to fishing, to provide areas where fish stocks can recover.
New forms of fisheries management are needed. Quotas are a blunt and ineffective tool in a mixed fishery like that of bottom trawling around the British Isles. Both the Government and the European Commission should work with the industry to agree on both permanent and seasonally closed areas around spawning grounds and other locations which should be backed up with satellite surveillance, robust policing and heavy fines.
Fishermen should then be entitled to land more of what they catch outside those areas on an agreed basis.
The problem with policing the quota system and responding to the understandable complaints about discarding perfectly healthy over quota fish is that it is not possible to distinguish between an intended and unintended by-catch of over quota stock.
“There are opportunities for fishermen, through their associations, to deal with areas where discarding is most apparent. We encourage them to act as stewards of the sea and take advantage of the gear technology that is available to them.”
Responding to news that "massive" quantities of cod and other fish species in European waters are being discarded because of the system, Greenpeace Oceans campaigner Oliver Knowles said: “It’s time to abandon this madness and introduce a new approach to fisheries management – one based on controlling the number of days fisherman can spend at sea and introducing large marine reserves which provide fish stocks with the space to recover.”
Greenpeace proposes a new approach which:
1) Abandons the rigid quota system and replaces it with effort controls to reduce overall days at sea.
2) Makes further reductions in overall fleet capacity
3) Establishes large scale marine reserves closed to fishing, to provide areas where fish stocks can recover.
New forms of fisheries management are needed. Quotas are a blunt and ineffective tool in a mixed fishery like that of bottom trawling around the British Isles. Both the Government and the European Commission should work with the industry to agree on both permanent and seasonally closed areas around spawning grounds and other locations which should be backed up with satellite surveillance, robust policing and heavy fines.
Fishermen should then be entitled to land more of what they catch outside those areas on an agreed basis.
The problem with policing the quota system and responding to the understandable complaints about discarding perfectly healthy over quota fish is that it is not possible to distinguish between an intended and unintended by-catch of over quota stock.
“There are opportunities for fishermen, through their associations, to deal with areas where discarding is most apparent. We encourage them to act as stewards of the sea and take advantage of the gear technology that is available to them.”
