New Era in Fisheries Control
Left to right: Head of the EC Community Fisheries Control Agency Harm Koster, Hugo Andersson and Ann Bell of the NSRAC Secretariat at Peterhead fish market during the conference on fisheries control.
A conference in Peterhead, organised by the North Sea Regional Advisory Council, marks a radical break with the past, according to the event organisers.
Chairman of the NSRAC, Hugo Andersson, said that the conference, which was attended by fishermen and fisheries control authorities from across Europe, had recognised that the first 20 years of the Common Fisheries Policy had been marked by a failure of governance and inadequate control systems.
“What was clear from the conference was that there were multiple reasons why black fish and non-observance of technical conservation rules became widespread towards the end of last century”, said Mr Andersson.
“Overcapacity, meaning that fishing vessels couldn’t be economically viable on their quota allocations, was probably the principal culprit but a remote and unresponsive decision-making process also played an important role. A vicious spiral of unreported landings undermined scientific stock assessments, leading to lower quotas. Failed systems did immense damage to fishermen and the reputation of the fishing industry”, he said at the conclusion of the conference.
He added, “It was very encouraging to hear throughout the conference that important lessons have been learned from our recent history and that a new era of cooperation and collaboration between fishermen, scientists, fisheries managers and enforcement authorities is emerging. Much of the two day conference was spent in discussing how this progress can be maintained.”
Mr Andersson said: “The conference concluded that successful fisheries control relies on:
- Rules that are comprehensible to both fishermen and the people charged with enforcing the rules
- A culture of compliance where the vast majority of fishermen understand and believe that the rules in place are legitimate. An important part of control is the consent of the controlled
- A fleet capacity in line with available resources
- Involvement of fishermen and the RACs in decision-making, especially in the early stages of policy formulation
- The need to go beyond highly complex, prescriptive rules, towards a system that allows fishermen flexibility to meet management objectives in ways that are tailored to their circumstances
- Positive incentives for those vessels that go beyond the basic rules by changing their fishing patterns to, for example, reduce discards. Exemption from days at sea restrictions to motivate positive behaviour is one obvious way forward”
Mr Andersson said that the stature of the speakers and the conference participants offered hope that the conference conclusions would be translated into actions. EC Fisheries and Maritime Affairs Commissioner, Joe Borg, was the keynote speaker and fishermen and national control authorities described different facets of the same problem. The conference was moderated by the assistant director of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Mr Ichiro Nomura.
Hugo Andersson added that the EC legislative programme for the coming year offered huge opportunities for the lessons learned in the conference to be taken up. This includes the revision of the EC fisheries control regulation, the EC cod recovery plan and the EC technical conservation rules.
One theme that arose repeatedly during the conference was the absolute obligation on fishermen to estimate their catch at sea to within an 8% margin of tolerance. Conditions at sea and mix of species means that it is impossible for practical reasons to meet this level of accuracy on a consistent basis and one of the most immediate issues facing both fishermen and regulators is how to remove this obligation in favour of rules that are capable of being complied with.
“This problem must be solved in a way that gives confidence that the abuses of the past will not re-emerge but it must be addressed and resolved quickly” said Hugo Andersson. |
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