EU fishing quotas

From the tiniest of plankton to the blue whale, the world's oceans are home to more species than anywhere else on the planet. But with overfishing threatening the future of fish stocks, the European Union has begun examining current quotas to chart a more sustainable way forward in 2011.

The EU Commission estimates that nearly 90 percent of EU fish stocks are overfished, and 30 percent are "outside safe biological limits."

With an eye on the next decade, fisheries ministers from the 27-member bloc gathered for an informal meeting in Vigo, the biggest fishing port in Spain, earlier this month. During those talks, EU Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki stressed the need for an effective approach and long-term planning:

"We have great problems of overfishing, of overcapacity, all over Europe, and we have to face these problems," she said. "That's why we need reform."

Consensus and compromise

Sustainability is the goal, but in order to reach it there needs to be consensus among EU member states. Robert Kloos, state secretary for Germany's Federal Ministry of Food, Agricultural and Consumer Protection, says that although there is basic agreement among the 27-nation bloc that something has to be done to regulate fishing practises, there are "vast differences" on the best way forward.

As it stands fishing quotas are determined by fisheries ministers from the EU's 27 countries each fall. But the quotas do not always take scientific recommendations into consideration, something that Swedish European Parliament representative Isabella Loevin, the only Green Party member on the EU's Committee on Fisheries, considers a mistake.

"I think it's really ridiculous to see the council sitting every year in the negotiations and kind of horse-trading on quotas," she said. "One country after the other trying to raise the quotas, against all scientific advice."

Free-market fishing rights?

Spain is looking to take things one step further in hopes of increasing its share of European fishing rights. During talks in Vigo, Spain proposed an EU-wide system of tradable quotas. Selling fishing rights across national borders would allow the Spanish fishing fleet - already the bloc's largest - to edge toward further expansion.

Other EU nations, France in particular, oppose the idea of a European quota market. And for conservationists, Spain's growth potential is a sobering thought.

"The 12 largest ships in Spain are bigger than the entire Swedish fleet put together," said Saskia Richartz, Greenpeace's EU Oceans Policy Director.

Loevin, however, says there is one quite simple way to reduce the size of Europe's 82,000 boat fishing fleet: "Stop giving subsidies for the fishing fleet to go on, even though there's not enough fish to keep them going," Loevin said.

But in light of the fact that some 400,000 people earn their living through the EU's fishing industry, cutting subsidies is a tough sell for European governments.

No bans on bycatch release

Another issue confounding the overfishing problem is unwanted fish caught during fishing rounds that are later discarded, also known as bycatch.

"The fish don't survive this procedure," said fisheries expert Karoline Schacht of WWF Germany. "Once they've been caught, they're bruised, they have internal injuries. After the sorting, they're out of water too long and suffocate."

Since there is no ban on discarding bycatch in the European Union, WWF supports a new policy that would see the practise counted as part of the quota for that particular species. "We think that could be an incentive system to avoid bycatching out at sea," Schacht said.

Dwindling numbers

The Global Diversity Outlook report published at the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity says high demand for certain fish species has led to a drastic decline in their numbers in recent decades.

"We keep fishing more than we can biologically handle," said Elsa Nickel, who heads the nature preservation department at the German Environment Ministry and works with the UN Convention for Biological Diversity.

Her ministry has also alerted the European Union to parts of the ocean that could be turned into underwater nature preserves.

But such a step would not be enough to secure species sustainability. The only way to achieve that is to change the way humans interact with the sea and the creatures living in it. And that, warns the Global Diversity Outlook report, needs to happen soon if permanent damage to the oceans is to be avoided.

Author: Katrin Brand, Helle Jepessen & Henrik Böhme (mz/arp)
Editor: Nathan Witkop