June 3, 2013 — Fueled by a groundswell of public support, European legislators late last week took a huge step toward ending overfishing by agreeing that most European Union fish stocks will be fished sustainably by 2015 and all stocks by 2020. The decision is part of a thorough reform of the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy, or CFP, and follows four years of concerted campaigning by a diverse group of stakeholders. The deal—involving the European Parliament, the European Commission, and all 27 EU member States—also seeks to greatly decrease the discarding of bycatch. Every year, fishermen engaging in this wasteful practice throw tonnes of dead or dying fish back into the sea.
Since its inception in 1983, the CFP has failed to prevent overfishing. In 2007, the EU Court of Auditors judged that the policy had failed to achieve its central objective—the sustainable exploitation of living aquatic resources. Two years later, the commission’s green paper, “Reform of the Common Fisheries Policy,” confirmed that dramatic change was needed. Key findings of the paper were that 88 percent of EU fish stocks were being caught beyond their maximum sustainable yield, with 30 percent of these stocks considered outside safe biological limits. The paper concluded that European fisheries were eroding their own ecological and economic basis.
In 2009, just in time to respond to the commission’s public consultation on the green paper, The Pew Charitable Trusts initiated the OCEAN2012 coalition to support a fundamental reform of the Common Fisheries Policy. The coalition has swelled from its initial five groups to 188 in 24 EU member States, and it now includes fishermen’s organisations, leading marine scientists, development agencies, environmental nongovernmental organisations, aquaria, and others who share an interest in sustainable European fisheries.
In 2010, OCEAN2012 brought together 70 organisations, including artisanal fishermen, to sign a declaration calling for low-impact fisheries to be placed at the heart of the CFP reform. More recently, the coalition in April gathered 217 civil society organisations to call on EU fisheries ministers to support an end to overfishing and a speedy restoration of fish stocks. Also in April, in an unprecedented initiative, 220 Spanish scientists wrote to Miguel Arias Cañete, Spain’s minister of Agriculture, Food and Environment, urging the country to shift its official stance and support the recovery of fish stocks.
OCEAN2012 has engaged in numerous activities, including partnering with celebrity chefs and organizing the hugely successful European Fish Week, to raise public awareness of overfishing and the opportunity of CFP reform and to direct this attention toward decision-makers.
Read the full story at the Pew Charitable Trusts