| 01/07/2009 |
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| Reform Of The Common Fisheries Policy Requires Decisive Action |
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Speaking at the “The Reform of the Common Fisheries Policy” conference held at the University of London yesterday, Mike Mitchell, technical director at The Seafood Company, the UK’s leading chilled seafood company, called for the Reform of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) to be used wisely to address sustainability issues:
“If we are to address public concerns over seafood sustainability, we must accept the opportunity that this reinvention of the CFP gives us – and act decisively to remove the policy driven anomalies which perpetuate unsustainable practices at sea,” he said.
Mike Mitchell acknowledged that the solution was not an easy one, “There is now an almost universal recognition at market level, that a fundamental reform of the Common Fisheries Policy is needed. I have not yet seen a ‘silver bullet’ solution to this complex problem and the Green Paper itself serves as a good illustration of the scale and scope of the task in hand.
“With so many options and alternatives on the table, it is difficult to envisage a universal ‘panacea’ for European fisheries and of course, such a panacea does not exist. Future policy will inevitably be forged in hot fires and inevitably, in a great deal of conflict.
“There is therefore a clear risk that the complexity and difficulty of the challenge will prove a disincentive to making meaningful progress and that come 2012, we will all be regretting that the new CFP does not properly address the problems of the current system and does not live up to the expectations of the industry or the hopes of the market for a better future for European fisheries.”
Without pretending to offer that elusive ‘silver bullet’ to the challenge from a market perspective, Mike Mitchell did propose ten points for consideration in the Green Paper consultation process:
1. It is imperative that fleet structure is balanced across the EU with the size of the catch opportunity – there will be an economic and social cost to this, but the longer term costs will be greater if nothing is done
2. Rights based fisheries engender better stewardship of the resource but measures will be needed to protect fleet structure and to prevent the migration of quota into the hands of the few
3. The annual ‘horse trading’ for quota at December Council does not promote the long term sustainability of the resource – where long term biological cycles are involved, a longer term approach is required
4. Complex mixed EU fisheries cannot be micromanaged from the centre – greater devolution of responsibilities to regional level is absolutely necessary
5. Spawning areas and juvenile fish need to be protected through real time and adaptive spatial management measures
6. Monitoring, surveillance and control must be co-ordinated, comprehensive and even handed across the EU, with meaningful sanctions which act as an effective disincentive to the participation in IUU activities
7. Discarding cannot be allowed to jeopardise the sustainability of target or non-target species – research into improving gear selectivity should be ongoing and incentivised for deployment into the catching sector
8. Fishermen must be valued stakeholders in decision making processes but they are not the only voice to be heard – a truly multi-stakeholder collaborative process needs to be built, perhaps using the RAC model as a good starting point
9. Whole chain traceability is taken for granted with all other food products – consumers, processors, sellers and regulators need better visibility of where our seafood is coming from
10. There is an ongoing need for good quality collaborative science in order to continuously improve our understanding of the impacts of commercial activities in the sea
A full copy of Mike Mitchell’s speech to the “The Reform of the Common Fisheries Policy” conference, organised by CMS and held on June 30, 2009 at the University of London is available on request.
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