Writing to the Members of the European Parliament’s Committee on Fisheries, Swedish Fishermen’s PO (SFPO) chairman Peter Ronelöv Olsson has set out his serious concerns for the future of European fisheries in an open letter.
‘I am seriously concerned that soon the EU will no longer have professional fishing and therefore no producers of marine food,’ he stated, commenting that after the recent Meeting of the Council of Ministers in Luxembourg which set the fishing possibilities for 2022 in the Baltic, all cod fishing is now stopped, and many other stocks are in poor condition.
‘The cause of the Baltic Sea’s problems cannot be found in fishing. The causes of the Baltic Sea’s problems can be found in the absence of a functioning marine environment policy. Fishing has been blamed for the overriding of marine environment policy for too long. As far as the Baltic Sea is concerned, we are now in an emergency and measures to address the problems relating to old environmental offences, eutrophication from agriculture et cetera is needed. If the Green Deal is to be credible, we urgently need to address these problems,’ he writes.
Peter Olsson lists further the challenges facing fishing in addition to the acute marine environment crisis.
‘What youth wants to be a professional fisherman if monitored all working hours by CCTV? Of course, we should have a fisheries control, but to be monitored by a camera on board feels disproportionate. No human wants to be watched when working. We are faced with a situation where fishing soon will have to pay CO2 emissions charges. Profitability is already under so much pressure that the industry cannot cope with such a cost. There are also currently no alternatives that work for the propulsion of a fishing vessel,’ he said.
‘In addition, there are the massive expansion plans for marine wind power. Soon there will significantly less good fishing grounds for fishing.’
‘Without professional fishing, the EU will be obliged to import marine food. It’s not a situation that I think anyone wants to see become a reality. Fishing in the EU is a long-established basic industry and people are asking for fish. It is high time to seriously do something about the marine environment, because it is the one that needs to be addressed, most of the EU fishing fleet fishes sustainably in the long term. All charges and future ones such as CCTV and CO2 charges risk leading to a situation without any European fishing,’ he told members of the EP Committee on Fisheries,’ he writes.
‘Most of the EU fishing fleet consists of small family-owned companies – it is their future that is at risk. I am seriously concerned about developments, and, with this letter, which has been deliberately kept brief, I would like to express my deep concern and that of many other fishermen.’
Image: SFPO
