Deja Vu - here we go again - blanket ban threatens the livelihoods of small inshore fishermen yet again!

Drift Net Ban “a Throwback to the Unreformed CFP?”

Prompted by a post from Ex-EU fisheries leader Maria Damanki:

NO MORE DRIFTNETS IN OUR WATERS

Driftnets are a harmful practiceDriftnet fishing – with vertical nets – is an irresponsible practice. It is a non-selective fishery which leads to non-targeted catches. It threatens marine wildlife and species which are protected under EU legislation. Tolerating this practice comes in contradiction with our newly reformed Common Fisheries Policy. 
One of the core principles of our Reform is to reduce the pressure of fishing activities on marine ecosystems. This is a key value that we promote also in our international agreements. It is important that we remain coherent and ensure such prohibited and destructive practices are not taking place in the EU anymore. We need to lead by example on sustainability. This is why, after extensive consultations, I proposed this week a ban on the use of driftnets in European waters. 
Why a total ban? Because up to now, there were numerous exemptions in the existing prohibition, generating loopholes. Only a total ban will leave no room for ambivalent interpretation. This was the last missing piece of the puzzle of our reform of the Common Fisheries Policy. I hope that we can complete this puzzle by the end of this year and have no more driftnets in our waters by January 2015. 

Tags: bycatch, CFP, common fisheries policy, driftnet, Environment, EU,fishing, reform, sustainability


The NFFO asks: What is the European Commission doing, proposing a blanket ban on drift net fisheries?

A new CFP was agreed in June of last year and at the heart of the reform was the scope for regional management. Technical conservation is exactly one of the policy areas earmarked for this new decentralised approach. This change was introduced against widespread criticism that EU blanket measures had been too blunt and crude, often failing to solve the original issue, whilst creating a myriad of new problems elsewhere. Now the Commission has come forward with a proposal for a blanket ban on drift nets that is going to repeat exactly those flaws.

It is as though the reform hadn’t taken place.

For the record, there are many, unobtrusive, small-scale, drift-net fisheries around the coast of England, and other member states, for species like herring, mackerel, sprat, bass, salmon, mullet and other non-TAC species. They provide a crucial component in the annual income of many inshore fishermen. When research has been done using on-board observers, there has been no evidence of any significant bycatch issue associated with these fisheries. This is not surprising, given that the boat is usually in close attendance to the nets as they fish.

Is the Commission completely unaware how badly this kind of brutal measure reflects on Europe? Proposing a blanket EU ban, to solve a perceived problem in some drift net fisheries in the Mediterranean, is a throwback to what was precisely wrong with the pre-reform CFP. If  specific bycatch problems do arise with any particular local drift-net fisheries, we have the means at local, national and now at regional levels, to deal with them. What we don’t need is an EU bulldozer approach that destroys fishermen’s livelihoods for no good reason.

We expect Defra to give us full support in opposing this blunt and regressive legislation.

Full story courtesy of the NFFO.

Extreme AIS data being received today

Freak weather conditions today sees the @VesselTracker AIS tracking stations pick up the 292m ULCC bulk carrier Cape Britannia just short of 900 miles south west of Land's End!

NFFO - Hugh on the Back Foot

It will bring little comfort to the fishing community at large to see HFW on Newsnight defending his position with such vigour. Presenter Jeremy Paxman seemed a little out of his depth during the broadcast content to offer little in the way of incisive questioning to either speaker - hardly surprising when even those much closer to the industry often struggle to make sense of an incredibly complex situation - though that should not have excused HFW in putting together a particularly poorly researched series(with a budget of around £500k mainly from the likes of PEW) in which, as this article points out, the first series failed to mention the huge achievements of the North Sea fleet in reducing discards prior to the campaign - and for HFW to then say how their views were heard in the second series (aka Peter Bruce aboard the Budding Rose) amounts to a lame apology for not having included the very people the discards campaign come FishFight was aimed at in the first place!

Here's Barrie Deas' response to coverage in the media and that programme in full courtesy of the NFFO web site:

It is perhaps not surprising that Hugh’s Fish Fight is now mounting a rather desperate attempt to shore up the credibility of its campaign to ban discards, after a powerful piece in the Times suggested that the public and politicians were misled into supporting an EU discard ban.

Evidence was presented to the Fish Fight campaign to show that discards in our fisheries were not a static or growing problem but were in fact, being steadily reduced. The NFFO advised Hugh, on film, that discarding by the English fleet had been reduced by 50% over the previous decade. That statistic did not appear in any of his programmes.

Information on discard trends have been reinforced more recently by further work in ICES, that confirms that the absolute amount of discards in the North Sea roundfish fisheries (one of those in which discards have historically been very high) have been reduced by 90% over the last 20 years. There are a number of reasons for this drastic reduction including, a significantly smaller fleet, using more selective gear, over a period of lower recruitment.

The statistics on the general discard trends were there at the time, for anyone who cared to look, as Hugh’s campaign reached its crescendo. The point is that Hugh’s Fish Fight didn’t look very hard for them, presumably because they would have spoiled a rather simple narrative of a hero at the head of a crusade. Looking like a Johnny-come-lately who arrived at the scene after 90% of the work has been done wouldn’t carry quite the same cache. The central point is that if Hugh was interested in a fair, balanced picture his team had a responsibility to look into the issue and the statistics more deeply. They didn’t.

The alternative conclusion is that they knew but took the cynical decision to ignore them.

Discards

This Federation has taken the view that discards are a major problem in some of our fisheries and that the Common fisheries Policy has amplified the problem by the way it has managed its fisheries. That much we have in common with Hugh.

Where we part company with Hugh is his belief is that an EU ban is the best way to secure further progress is through a top-down blanket ban (albeit with some scope for flexibilities and exemptions)
Fishermen from right around the coast feel aggrieved that they now face a period of uncertainty and change on a massive scale, with no guaranteed that their businesses will survive, to solve a problem that was already well on its way to being solved. That is not to be complacent about discards, it is to take a page out of the Norwegian experience, from which we can learn that a steady, incremental approach, resolving issues as they arise is the correct way to reduce discards; and that achieving other important fisheries objectives such as high yields, high levels of compliance and of course, profitable as well as sustainable fisheries should not be lost.

Hugh’s blog makes some other points on which it is important to comment:

There is less fish out there to catch: For Hugh to claim in his most recent blog that there are fewer discards because there “is less fish out there to catch” than in the early 1990s, suggests to us that if he is to continue as a campaigner in fisheries he should spend less time with his frying pan and more time studying ICES stock assessments. Fishing mortality has reduced by 50% since 2000 and the stocks are responding, sometimes dramatically. Discards are down because of effort control (Days at Sea limits): Effort control introduced under the Cod Recovery Plan will have had very little impact on discards because so few vessels were actually constrained by it; the reduction in fleet days at sea is mainly because of the reduction in the size of the fleet. The Discard Rate in the North Sea Cod Fishery has increased: Of course it has. The TACs in this mixed fishery have been set artificially low for several years in relation to the abundance because NS cod is seen as an iconic species in the media spotlight which must be rebuilt as rapidly as possible. Unless additional measures such as the Catch Quota Trials are made to work, the discard rate will increase.

Fishery-by-Fishery

The North Sea Roundfish fishery is of course only one fishery, although one which historically had a serious discard problem.

On the most recent statistics, 40% of the catch in the North Sea is discarded. But 80% of that 40% is comprised of two species: plaice and dab. These are big tonnages. A lot of this is caught in the sole fishery where further selectivity without losing the valuable sole catch is very difficult.

However, scientists reckon that up to 6o% of plaice survive (depending on season, gear, length of tow etc). We think therefore plaice is likely to be a candidate for a high survival exemption. And the problem with dab is that they have low market value although they are perfectly edible. That is why we suggest that celebrity chefs in future should devote their main energies to encouraging their consumption.

All this highlights the complexity of the issues and the need for a fishery-by-fishery approach. (if it was that easy it would have been sorted years ago! Ed)

Hugh’s credibility as a campaigner may have been dented but one thing is certain, the EU landings obligation will come into force for the main demersal fisheries on January 1 2016. How the ban is implemented will be critical. If the regional discard plans developed by member states are well thought through, make intelligent use of the quota flexibilities and exemptions, we as an industry will do our bit to adapt. And there are potentially some good things in the approach, such as the incentives for skippers to fish more selectively; and the removal of those EU rules which generate discards. It is however a high risk strategy both in terms of vessel and fleet viability and losing undermining the progress towards sustainable fishing that has been made over the last 15 years or so.

NFFO web site

Big boats big fishing just off the coats of Mauretania

Three of the biggest distant water stern trawlers in the world including the infamous Margiris are busy bashing big hauls of fish of the Mauritania coast this week - bet they are popular with the local boats as they work right up to the 12 mile limit.

#FishyFriday sees the Seafish Board get some fish candy for their visit to the finest fishy port in the country #eatmorefish

Big moon big tide...

almost high water in the Bay...

as Tom keeps a weather eye on the Nazarene as she heads out to sea...

old school technology for the arrivals in the port...

there's signs of summer as the Dorys get more plentiful...

good to see the port's newest boat, Millennia get fish on the market...

pollack get the otolith treatment this morning from Cefas...

 a tidy shot of grey mullet from the Victory should all go to good homes on a menu tonight...

there's a few hake keeping an eye on things...

on a day like today when all you have to do is go and shoot a few pots away what's not to smile about...

are these white coats we see?...

the Seafish Board members get to done suitable apparel...

as Lionel and Gus give the lowdown on the port...

fish are on the move...

looks like Gus is doing the one that got away again...

bet the hake has heard that one before...

a few herring made it to market...

a chance to get a few pics of the board in action...

as a few boxes of Mount's Bay mackerel get landed...

stunning gilt nose bream shine in the morning sunlight...

just a few of the punts to land this morning...

and they will be back out again after they have had a few hours sleep before landing this evening.

Great British Family goes for hake

Good to see hake getting more widespread coverage as it rockets to the top of the sustainability charts in EU waters!

Here's what the patriotic British Family web site has to say:

"After a hard day at work it is easy get home with very little enthusiasm for cooking a decent meal. Last night was one such evening and with nothing but a couple of hake fillets in the fridge I was not all that inspired. I set about throwing anything that came to hand on my fish and what came out at the end was about the best meal we have had in a long time."

Go to their web site and check out the recipe - plenty of Cornish hake coming ashore over the next few days from boats like the Ajax. 

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