A scientific report, published today, January 21, reveals that Europe will fail to reach the Johannesburg commitment of managing fisheries sustainable until 2015 by decades.
Failed fisheries management in Europe does not comply with International law and may constitute a breach of the European treaty.
Today, renown fisheries scientists published a scientific study, showing that the reason for the disastrous situation of European fish stocks is an entirely failed fisheries management over the last decades. In fact, catches could be 80% higher with a sustainable fisheries management. In European waters, almost 90% of fish stocks evaluated are overfished. Managing fish stocks sustainably is a legal obligation under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and has been given the deadline of no later than 2015 in the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation, that has been agreed by the European Union.
The scientists found that Europe will fail to reach this aim by decades: Rainer Froese, leading scientists for the study, confirms "With a business-as-usual approach, rebuilding of European stocks will take more than 30 years". The scientists found, even if fishing were halted in 2010, 22% of the stocks are so depleted that they cannot be rebuilt by 2015. With their failing to set fishing quotas at a level that prevents overfishing, European Union fisheries ministers act also in contradiction to the “precautionary approach”, a legally binding principle of the European Union treaty.