As the AGRIFISH Council meeting opens, the Our Fish campaign is calling on the EU to make peace with nature and to demonstrate leadership in ocean governance by setting fishing limits in line with scientific advice and ending overfishing in 2021.
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Fishing limits will be set during this week’s AGRIFISH for approximately 30 North East Atlantic and deep sea fish populations, which are exclusively fished by EU member states approximately 25% of all stocks accessed by the EU.
The EU will therefore bear sole responsibility for any quotas set above scientific advice.
A recent Our Fish analysis of 20 years of the EU-Norway Agreement on shared stocks shows that on average, the EU, Norway and UK have exceeded scientific advice on fishing quotas by an average of 11% .
This analysis further shows that the fish populations of most interest to the EU and UK are more heavily overfished than those of interest to Norway, undermining any EU argument that Norway is primarily to blame for overfishing.
“This week the EU has an opportunity to demonstrate that it is committed to ending the war on nature, by ending overfishing of EU fish populationsâ€, said Our Fish Programme Director Rebecca Hubbard.
“To continue setting quotas above scientific advice would not only worsen ocean health, it would set a bad tone for the upcoming UK and Norway negotiations for shared stocks and undermine the EU’s work on global ocean governance and climate actionâ€, she added.
"In his December 2nd State of the Planet speech, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said that “making peace with nature is the defining task of the 21st centuryâ€.
EU First Vice President Frans Timmermans echoed this during the opening of the EU International Ocean Governance forum, adding that without a “healthy ocean, we cannot have a healthy planetâ€.
“There is no time left for words without actionâ€, concluded Hubbard.
“This AGRIFISH meeting is a clear litmus test for how committed EU leaders are to the Green Deal and making peace with nature will they walk the walk or are they just full of hot air?†■