According to an international alliance of more than 60 organizations the proposal of European Commission for allowances of deep-sea bottom fishing will lead to continued depletion and destruction of Northeast Atlantic fish stocks. Therefore, it should be abandoned immediately.
Matthew Gianni, political and policy advisor for the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition (DSCC), said that European Union already committed to the United Nations to protect deep-sea life from overfishing and this proposal is just an opposite. He added that the Commission wants to maintain the stability of the deep-sea fishing industry at the expense of the integrity of fish stocks and other vulnerable deep-sea species.
The fact is that in every two years the European Union decides on new catch limits for commercial fishing in the deep waters of the Northeast Atlantic, based on a proposal from the Commission. Ironically, a review of these same fisheries by the Commission in 2007 concluded that: “many deep-sea stocks have such low productivity that sustainable levels of exploitation are probably too low to support an economically viable fishery” and “the measures currently in force have been too poorly implemented to protect deep-sea stocks.”
European Commission was asked by the DSCC to temporarily halt deep-sea bottom fishing in the North Atlantic until scientists have sufficient understanding of the biology of deep-sea fish stocks and ecosystems to determine what constitutes sustainable levels of fishing.
The proposal released today by the Commission reinforces the ICES conclusions, stating that scientists are unable to assess the status of the stocks and that for all of the stocks covered by the proposal “there are insufficient data to demonstrate the sustainability of the fisheries”.
