It is fact that much of the world’s fish population is verging on extinction and the EU earns much of the blame for its poorly managed fishing fleets. Germany acknowledges the enormous problems with Europe’s fishing policies. Poor fishing rules allow Europeans to remove many more fish from the sea than are replaced through natural reproduction. Their governments tolerate theft, because they hardly oppose illegal fishing. In fact, the governments are accomplices to the crime because they tolerate their overexpanded fishing fleets.
Karoline Schacht of the environmental organization WWF said that the whole system could collapse by the middle of this century. The economic costs of overfishing reach up to €40 billion per year. Asked whether the fishing policies needed a wholesale revision, the German government wasn’t willing to take a firm stand. The government emphasized that it is actively working on countless improvements to the system.
According to German government it will “very soon” ban throwing caught fish overboard back into the sea. Previously, fishers were permitted to bring only the best of their haul back to land. The background for this hesitancy is clear enough. Despite Germany’s relatively small fishing fleet, the government still doesn’t have the confidence to openly challenge important fishing nations like Spain and Denmark in the halls of Brussels. Germany fears stirring up anger in its European partners and losing their cooperation on other issues.
