Closing the net on illegal and destructive fishing - Greenpeace

Greenpeace is pleased to see two European Commission proposals for stronger rules on destructive fishing practices and a strengthened fisheries control system to deter and eliminate illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing.

"Pirate fishing is the scourge of the oceans. It aggravates the impacts of overfishing and takes away a legitimate source of food and income from coastal communities. The Commission's proposal provides a good though much overdue basis upon which Member States must now act to close the net on pirate fishers," said Saskia Richartz, EU Marine Policy Director of Greenpeace. "The proposal to end destructive fishing in certain unregulated areas of the international waters is only a first step towards protecting deep-sea biodiversity. Measures to protect areas within EU waters and international waters under bad management must follow suit".

Pirate fishing, also known by its less colourful name of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, is a global problem. Fish pirates net up to US$9 billion each year in black-market revenue from our seas and aggravate the environmental impacts of overfishing. The Commission therefore rightly stresses the urgency with which action is needed.

Important elements of the Commission proposal to deter and eliminate IUU fishing are:

i) an EU black list of vessels that have been caught fishing illegally;
ii) an improved port control and inspection scheme;
iii) stricter rules on the transhipment of fish from one ship to another at sea;
iv) stricter rules on certification and trade in fish;
v) the setting of minimum standards for fines and other sanctions;
vi) the naming and prosecution of companies and EU nationals that benefit from IUU fishing;
and
vii) measures to prevent fish-pirates from hiding their identity, origin and activities behind the flags of countries that ask no questions about their fishing - so called flags of convenience of non-cooperating states.

The Commission's proposal on destructive fishing practices seeks to implement in parts a 2006 UN General Assembly Resolution that requires fishing nations to protect sensitive marine ecosystems from bottom fishing in areas beyond their national jurisdiction (i.e. in the international waters of the high seas). Most of the EU's deep-sea fisheries are conducted using a practice known as bottom-trawling, whereby vast, weighted nets are dragged across the seabed, devastating marine life which is hundreds, if not thousands, of years old. Scientists have identified deep-sea bottom trawling as the most destructive of all current fishing methods. Deepsea fisheries are also particularly vulnerable to overfishing, due to the longevity of targeted species and their slow growth and reproductive rates.

The Commission's proposal only deals with those EU fisheries conducted in areas where no international fisheries management takes place. It does not address destructive fishing within Community waters, nor does it currently address the same destructive fishing practices in areas where regional management organisations exist, such as the entire North Atlantic. It therefore leaves vast areas of the ocean unprotected. Further measures will have to be adopted at international and EU level to ensure that all areas are protect from the impacts of bottom trawling and similar destructive fishing practices. A number of isolated closed areas here and there will not provide sufficient protection.

Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning organisation that acts to change attitudes and behaviour, to protect and conserve the environment and to promote peace.