Ingredient 2

Britain's Bloated Fisheries - Influencing and Impacting World Wide Fish Stocks

The UK and the EU encourages and subsidizes its fleets far beyond reason - it's just plain unsustainable.

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Europe’s Bad Habit of Fishing for Jobs
By ANDREW C. REVKIN, September 14, 2011

Can Europe end its lamentable habit of using a variety of costly subsidies to prop up unsustainable fishing fleets? The European Union fisheries commissioner, Maria Damanaki, wants this... Marine conservation groups want it even more, chief among them Oceana, ...which released a report yesterday tallying the various subsidies and mapping the intense fishing pressure that this level of government support produces.

Here’s one of the more jarring findings: Thirteen EU countries had more fishing subsidies than the value of the landings of fish in their ports. The report notes that half of the estimated $4.5 billion in subsidies in 2009 were for fuel costs, enabling globe-spanning fishing trips.

But 14 European Union nations, ranging from relative newcomers like Latvia to France, have signed declarations insisting that subsidies are vital to their interests, according to Common Fisheries Policy Reform Watch.

Read the report, The European Union and Fishing Subsidies, for details.

So far, there are few signs that European Union member states share [the EU Fisheries Commissioner's] view. I’d like to think that the new report might prod things along, but I’m not holding my breath.

~o~

The European Union & Fishing Subsidies
Oceana; September 2011

click for the PDF report

"The world’s oceans are at risk of irreversible collapse. Most of the world’s fisheries are fully exploited, or worse, overexploited and depleted. In Europe, the oceans are equally in crisis. Only a minority of commercially fished stocks have even been assessed or managed. Of the fish stocks that have been scientifically assessed in the Northeast Atlantic and Mediterranean, the majority are overfished. An increasing number of marine species are threatened, with some nearing extinction."

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"Growing demand for fish, combined with local resource depletion, has promoted a major expansion of European fleets in size and fishing range. European Union (EU) fleets are now found in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans through arrangements with third-party countries. Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing is a widespread problem among European fleets in all oceans."

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"The EU fishing industry receives a significant amount of government subsidies, which have promoted the massive overcapacity of European fishing fleets. The European fishing fleet is estimated to be two to three times greater than what sustainable limits would allow."

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"In Europe, 63 percent of the assessed fish stocks in the Atlantic and 82 percent in the Mediterranean are overfished. A recent impact assessment by the European Commission concluded that if the status quo is maintained and fishing continues at current rates, only nine percent of European fish stocks will be managed at sustainable levels by 2022, despite the commitment by countries to manage all fisheries sustainably by 2015."

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"Fisheries management in Europe is poor to non-existent. In 2009, 82 percent of the species commercially fished by European fleets were not managed by fishing quotas. However, stocks of managed species are not doing much better, in large part because of the failure of EU member states to follow scientific advice. For example, in 2010, the European Council of Ministers, comprised of fishery ministers from EU member states, set catch allowances for Atlantic fish stocks 20 percent higher than the level recommended by scientists."

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"EU fisheries management also violates international law. The U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS 1982), Article 61(3),10 requires that fisheries management measures by coastal states in the 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) must aim at restoring and maintaining fish stock biomass that can produce maximum sustainable yields. The maximum sustainable yield is theoretically defined as the largest yield (or catch) that can be taken over an indefinite period, without harming the fish stock. Yet only 13 percent of European stocks in the Atlantic and 18 percent of those in the Mediterranean are at or near this internationally agreed reference point."

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"According to the FAO, EU countries comprise the third largest global fishing nation behind China and Peru."

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"The EU is the world’s largest importer and exporter of fish by volume."

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"Growing demand for fish, combined with local resource depletion, has promoted the major expansion of European fleets in size and fishing range."

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"More than 700 EU-flagged fishing vessels catch more than one million tonnes of fish outside of EU waters. Most of this activity occurs under “Fisheries Partnership Agreements” (FPAs), mainly with developing countries in East and West Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific, while some occurs under the Northern agreements with Norway, Iceland and the Faeroes. Under the FPAs, the EU pays countries for access to their fishing resources. In addition, EU vessels also fish in the international waters of the West and South Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans."

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"Due to its scope and high volume of catch, the EU fishing fleet has a large impact on fish stocks in non-European waters. This is particularly significant in developing countries, where the local communities depend on the coastal fish stocks for food and livelihood."

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"Fishing subsidies can create incentives to fish more, even when catches are declining. The results are overfishing, fleet overcapitalization, reduced economic efficiency and failure to realize the potential economic benefits from the resource."

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"The World Bank also concluded that subsidies create enormous economic losses and impacts on the global fishing industry. A World Bank report found that input subsidies tend to reinforce the sector’s “poverty trap” by creating incentives for greater investment and fishing effort in overstressed fisheries."

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"Despite the precarious condition of fisheries in Europe and beyond, the EU continues to provide massive subsidies to support its fishing fleets. Europe is one of the world’s top three subsidizers, along with China and Japan. Information from the European Commission and European national ministries on fishing subsidies, if available at all, is usually partial and incomplete, which suggests that the total amount of fishing subsidies is significantly higher than the figures officially provided."

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"Repeated attempts to tackle the issue have failed, and technological improvements have overshadowed any small capacity decreases."

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"In fact, many European fleets only continue to operate with the support of government subsidies. A recent economic analysis by the European Commission revealed that despite subsidies, 30 to 40 percent of the fishing segment it assessed suffered losses each year from 2002 to 2008."

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"Taxpayers throughout the EU finance the subsidies given to the fishing sector. Fisheries and agriculture are the two large policy sectors that are overseen mainly by the EU, and member states finance a large European Commission budget for fisheries policies and activities."

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"Oceana’s analysis found that a total of at least EUR 3.3 billion in subsidies were available to EU fleets in 2009."

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"Total subsidies to the fishing sector are equivalent to 50 percent of the value of the total fish catch by the EU in the same year (EUR 6.6 billion)."

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"Spain, France, Denmark, the United Kingdom and Italy received the most fishing subsidies."

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"Thirteen EU countries had more fishing subsidies than the value of the landings of fish in their ports."

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"The real degree of economic loss in the fishing sector is revealed when EU fishing subsidies per country are compared with the actual value of fish landings in the country."

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"The EU has ... fishing agreements with non-EU countries: Fisheries Partnership Agreements (FPAs) with developing countries near African, Caribbean and Pacific oceans where the EU provides financial and technical support in exchange for fishing rights..."

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"The costs of FPAs are largely funded by the EU and provide substantial benefits for the EU and its fishing industry while disadvantaging many of the affected developing countries. In 2009, close to EUR 150 million was paid to 14 countries to secure access to fisheries for European fleets."

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"One of the most profitable agreements, between the EU and Kiribati, generated EUR 20.2 for every Euro paid.62"

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"[T]here is little evidence that funding from these agreements has made any direct or substantial difference to the development of policies and plans for sustainable management."

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More detailed information is available at www.oceana.org/eusubsidies, including

explanations for all figures, the sources of information, the legal foundation of the

subsidy and, if applicable, the method of calculation.