Breakin' da Law - Europe's Other (Big) Fishery Problem, IUU
Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) activities of EU Fisheries: it's a bad situation.
Europe has a very bad case of IUU Fishing in and outside of European home waters. Europe's lack of fishery management and regulation likely extends to its lack of will and ability to enforce its existing laws. The UK's attempt to snatch the already protected waters of the Chagos EEZ "off the table" likely stems from a well founded lack of confidence in their abilities to manage fisheries from home.
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Costs of Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing in EU Fisheries
2008; Pew Environment Group
"Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing is a serious threat to fisheries sustainability in EU fisheries, and worldwide. The European Council recently adopted a regulation to prevent, deter and eliminate IUU fishing1 and the European Commission proposes a reform to the EU’s Control and Enforcement regime." ~
"Marine fishing and associated processing and commerce are important industries for a number of coastal communities in the European Union (EU). Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing, in various forms, is a significant threat to achieving biologically sustainable fisheries and a serious management problem for a large number of the fisheries on which these industries and coastal communities depend. Common forms of IUU fishing include fishing without permission, catching protected species, breaches of gear restrictions, disregarding catch quotas, high-grading catches, and deliberate underreporting or mis-reporting." ~
"IUU fishing is a major problem for the sustainability of the marine environment and the fisheries sector, but also for the credibility of the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy (CFP)." ~
"Percent of IUU fishing in EU Waters"
"IUU fishing can be highly lucrative and the only viable solution is to make it unprofitable through stronger governance measures." ~
What factors usually cause IUU fishing by the EU:
"• A high value of fish: since restricted supply leads to increased price, this also means that when stocks and catches are low, or regulators try to restrict catches, incentives for IUU fishing can rise;
• A low chance of detection: e.g. inadequate vessel inspections, poor port controls, ease of concealing IUU fishing, advance knowledge of inspections;
• A low risk of prosecution following detection, or low fines relative to value of IUU fishing;
• Low peer pressure for compliance; and
• ‘Limbo’ situations not effectively addressed by regulation: rules of origin and transfer of catch at sea between vessels." ~
"The problems associated with fishing overcapacity have been known for years, but the policy of compulsory capacity reduction in the EU was abandoned in the reform of the CFP in 2002." ~
"Overcapacity and IUU activities create a vicious circle in which depleted stocks worsen the problem of overcapacity and the drive to engage in IUU fishing. It is widely recognised that dealing effectively with overcapacity is a prerequisite for effective fisheries management in Europe. Nevertheless, this remains a difficult social and political task." ~
"Several authors (e.g. Cochrane and Doulman, 2005; Hilborn et al., 2005) have reviewed fisheries policies and institutions, identifying a lack of the political will or the political ability to address shortcomings effectively as a key problem. One consequence is that agencies charged with fisheries management are not provided with adequate technical and financial capacity to implement the instruments in most, if not all, countries. Another is that in some cases management bodies turn a blind eye to, or even encourage, certain forms of IUU fishing." ~
"The variability between Member States in relation to the enforcement of CFP regulations, risks of detection, follow-up, and sanctions, creates different conditions for different fishers and contributes to explaining the variety of IUU levels in different fisheries. The EU’s low to moderate standards of enforcement and follow-up influence the risk of detection of IUU activity and the expected penalties, which in turn lower the expected
costs of engaging in IUU fishing." ~
"Although the evidence is patchy, it is clear that IUU fishing is prevalent across a wide range of European stocks, at quite high levels: estimates reach as high as 100% of total catch in some cases [Scottish Purse Seiners]." ~
"More generally, IUU activity in many of the higher value, and more depleted, fisheries, is widely reported to be in the 40–50% range or higher. We draw on these figures in the simulation phase of the research to develop conservative estimates of the extent and cost of IUU activity in EU fisheries." ~
"The European Commission estimates that 15–20% of global catches are IUU14. The FAO estimates that illegal fishing represents up to 30% of total catches in certain major fisheries..." ~
"Deep-water fisheries are especially vulnerable to IUU activity. ICES (2003) describes the deepwater fish of the North Atlantic – with a few exceptions – as: “Adapted to a life with very little food and at a very slow pace... the fish grow extremely slowly and reproduce at a very slow rate”. Some fish can be very long-lived (100 years or more) and reach sexual maturity late (15–30 years). These stocks need careful handling, especially since our knowledge of their biology is generally poor, and rapid decline in catches is a clear warning sign. Sensible management of these stocks may require very low mortality rates, “pulse” fishing, and/or substantial Marine Protected Areas or no-take zones. Good management of deep sea stocks is increasingly important because catches are coming from deeper and deeper average depths (Morato et al., 2006). The mean longevity of the catch has increased during the past 50 years, but most dramatically since the early 1990s. Catch from shallow waters has a lower mean longevity (about 15 years) compared with intermediate water (about 40 years) or deeper waters (more than 100 years). Hence, fishing deeper means fishing for increasingly longer lived and thus more vulnerable species – their life-history characteristics (Merrett and Haedrich, 1997; Morato et al., in press) suggest that decline will be much faster than for shallow stocks, with a smaller likelihood of recovery after collapse." ~
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