"Reform of the Common Fisheries Policy" - Margot Wallström

A Sustainable Fisheries Policy Expectations on Reform

Margot Wallström

Member of the European Commission, responsible for Environment

"Reform of the Common Fisheries Policy"

SPEECH/02/219 Brussels, 21 May 2002

Thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak about my expectations for the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) - a major issue for sustainable development.

Fisheries policy today has to adapt to a very obvious fact: There can be no fisheries without fish. Everybody will accept this statement. The problem is that fisheries today does not respect this reality. We are talking of course about the EU's Common Fisheries Policy in particular and the need for its reform, although reforms are also needed in the fisheries policies of other countries and at international level.

As the Commissioner for Environment, my most immediate concern is the impact of current fishing practices on the marine eco-system. I will start by highlighting some of these concerns.

However, I also see fisheries as a lesson in sustainable development in a broader sense. The current Common Fisheries Policy is not sustainable, either from a natural resources or from an economic point of view. I will expand on this in the second part of my speech.

Finally, I will focus on the global dimension and make the link to the World Summit on Sustainable Development that will be taking place in Johannesburg this summer.

Let me also say right away that I will not comment on the media reports over the last few weeks concerning the Commission's proposals for a reform of the Common Fisheries Policy. I understand that the Fisheries Committee of the European Parliament will hold a hearing later this week to clarify what happened.

When I agreed to speak at this workshop about 6 weeks ago, I hoped that I would be able to use the opportunity to explain the proposals that the Commission had put on the table and press for their rapid adoption. I now expect that the Commission will present its proposals next week and I strongly support this intention.

The environmental impact of fisheries

Let me then first turn to the impact of fisheries on the marine environment. My aim is not to give you a complete overview, but rather provide a few examples that highlight the problems.

Certain fisheries currently threaten bio-diversity. Earlier this year, dozens of dead dolphins were washed up on the beaches of England and France. In England alone over 80 of them were counted. These animals had obviously become caught in the nets of the seasonal bass fisheries in the area.

At the same time, all cetacean species to which dolphins belong are strictly protected under the Habitats Directive.

Another cetacean species is the harbour porpoise. For many years it has been a victim of fisheries in EU waters. There is a lack of data on the incidental by-catch of harbour porpoises and their conservation status.

However, from the data collected it appears that several hundred and even thousand harbour porpoises were caught each year during the 1990s in different fisheries in the Northeast Atlantic.

The situation is thought to be particularly alarming in the Baltic Sea where even the incidental catch of very few harbour porpoises could now threaten the survival of this population.

Action has been taken in some fisheries, for example by using pingers, that is, acoustic deterrents that keep harbour porpoises away from the fishing nets, although the effectiveness of these pingers and their side-effects have been criticised.

Since the beginning of this year, the use of drift nets has been banned by the Community for certain fisheries in EU waters although not in the Baltic where the problem appears to be the most acute. In any case it is questionable whether these measures will be sufficient to end unsustainable levels of by-catches of harbour porpoises.

The Commission will therefore work on a broad-ranging plan to protect cetaceans from by-catch.

Due to a lack of observers on board fishing vessels and a lack of information on the populations of vulnerable species, we are not even sure of the full extent of the problem.

According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, 34 per cent of all fish species are vulnerable or in immediate danger of extinction.

It is simply not acceptable that fishing operates in a manner that threatens a species protected under Community law or for that matter of course any other species.

Looking beyond threats to bio-diversity by by-catches, over-fishing is now the major threat to marine bio-diversity. After all, the marine environment is as any other eco-system a complex food chain where one species feeds on another. When one species is depleted through fishing, its predators are threatened as well.

This is what seems to have happened in Alaska where over-fishing of pollock has had ripple effects through the food chain, ultimately affecting sea otters and killer whales.

Fishing gear can also cause physical damage to the environment.

I must confess that until recently I believed that coral reefs only existed in tropical waters. Now I learn that there are cold water coral reefs as well, for example in the North Atlantic where much of EU fisheries takes place.

By scratching over the sea bottom, fishing nets can damage these reefs - and they do.

Coral reefs are of course important breeding grounds for fish and eco-systems in their own right. A Norwegian investigation suggests that 30 to 50 per cent of their known reefs have been damaged by fishing gear. While we are still waiting for corresponding information for EU waters, the risk is high that reefs in our waters have been subject to similar damage.

Aquaculture is potentially an important complement to fisheries and an alternative source of employment for fisheries-dependent regions, and it has seen high growth over the last few years.