GEOMAR researchers identify systemic weaknesses in EU fisheries management and are calling for quotas to be set independently of national interests.
GEOMAR researchers identify systemic weaknesses in EU fisheries management and are calling for quotas to be set independently of national interests.
Every year, total allowable catches (TACs) and fishing quotas are set across Europe through a multi-step process – and yet many fish stocks in EU waters remain overfished. A new analysis published today in the journal Science by researchers of the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel and Kiel University reveals that politically agreed-upon catch limits are not sustainable because fish stock sizes are systematically overestimated and quotas regularly exceed scientific advice. In order to promote profitable and sustainable fisheries, the researchers propose establishing an independent institution to determine ecosystem-based catch limits that management bodies must not exceed.
As legally required by the European Union, sustainable fisheries may not extract more fish than can regrow each year. Yet, about 70 per cent of commercially targeted fish stocks in northern EU waters are either overfished, have shrunken population sizes or have collapsed entirely. So why does the EU continue to miss its sustainable fisheries targets, despite a wealth of scientific data and policy instruments? Researchers at GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel examined this question using the well-explored seas of northern Europe as a case study, with a particular focus on the western Baltic Sea. Their analysis is published in Science today.
“We analysed the problems and concluded that they are driven by short-sighted national calls for higher, unsustainable catches, compromising all levels of decision making,” says lead author Dr Rainer Froese, a fisheries scientist at GEOMAR. “Environmental factors such as warming waters and oxygen loss also play a role, but overfishing is so strong that it alone suffices to collapse stocks.” He adds: “We propose a new approach to EU fisheries management that would overcome the problems, be doable within existing legislation, and lead to profitable fisheries from healthy fish stocks within a few years.”
Read more at Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel (GEOMAR)
