Discuss. Food for thought.

A transcript from an exchange between members of the EU fishing community in the wake of papers published like the one from Peche and Development, Damanaki vs Elionor Ostrom:

"Thanks Constantine. This document is the French translation of what was presented yesterday to EC. Following lines won't be addressed to you, forgive me in advance. They would be the reflect of what is said on the French docks : 'not in my name'. Rapidly, on the 4 points, I can tell you French industry and real fishermen NGO (like Pêche et Development who wrote the paper Damanaki versus Elinor Ostrom) would support point 2 to 4, highly. And this is not new. Their voices weren't heard before and this document only copied some of their proposals. This may be a positive point. Point 1 may cause difficulties, because what is the definition of those who fish in more environmental friendly way? who establish the rules and guidelines ? Greenpeace and others are dogmatically against trawl. Damanaki answers to this document by saying current proposals will give the framework to comply with this document. BUT, ITQs proposal for less 12m towed gear is a way to target these fishing gears and set them as guilty. And I can insure readers there are many way of using these fishing gears according to many various fishing grounds, as there are many different ways of designing them. There is no legal framework in Europe a part from CFP technical measures to define the environmental friendly way. So for French fishermen, the 'environmental friendly' is already addressed by the respect of current European regulations, and national ones, among them some decided by fishermen themselves inside 12 miles. 
 And some Env NGO could be tempted to set themselves as 'partners' to undertake the control of environmental friendly way, through ecolabels or lobbying. And I can tell readers this won't go. Many of these ecolabels in France only validate current uses and rules already defined, financed and implemented by professionals. In many of our French fisheries we don't need somebody to come and 'help' and get a lot of money for that, with no real inputs. MSC initiatives are only considered as a value-added regarding 'marketing'. There are no significant improvements in the fishing practices. What industry needs to decrease its environmental impact is a massive investment in fishing gear selectivity. But if people look closely to EC proposals, selectivity is not that much emphasized. Ban discard is emphasized, because it facilitates implementation of ITQs in multi species fisheries in a dogmatic and global way as a panacea. In the same way, the definition of small scale fleet is a quite difficult exercise for France. If you would ask me now who is industrial in France, I would be very annoyed to answer. Considering the behaviour on fishing grounds, fishing strategy and the way to sale their fish, I would say first we have no industrial fisheries in France. And if considering the access to capital and investment capacities, I would class as industrial some fishermen who obviously are considered by everybody as small-scale ones. 
 This petition also try to make people think there is a bad industrial fishery against a virtuous small scale one. And I can tell you this is not as simple as that. You have good practices every where, and black sheep every where. What small scale fishery doesn't have by money, they get it by number. And if you consider first sales market there are huge linkages between small-scale and industrial, they support each others. And last : I have to point out that this document doesn't get the support of any French fishermen association in its writing. It is the translation of an English document. LPO is a French E NGO devoted to bird protection in France and is connected to other European ENGOs and their local board in France. Lots of French fishermen representatives are fed up with these self declared 'partners' who, for some, only target more fame on the back of the fishermen work. Technically speaking, this communication takeover bid is excellent."
See or join the discussion for yourself here: