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BALTIC FISHERMEN’S ASSOCIATION
On Friday the 30th of August, the EU Commission released its proposal for a Council Regulation fixing for 2020 the fishing opportunities for the Baltic Sea. In response to this proposal the following statement has been prepared by the members of BFA:
Statement of fisheries organisations in BFA
We need sustainable management with all 3 pillars of sustainability!
We ask for a chance for fishermen to survive!
The brutal management of cod fishery done in 2019 and cod and herring fisheries in 2020 planned by the EU-Commission will cause severe damage in the coastal fisheries as well as in the fleet of bigger sized vessels. It will also irreversible destroy economic structures like associations and fish processing plants.
The main reasons for the failure of EU-Management decisions are
- insufficient knowledge base for the multi-annual plan
- no economic impact assessment for management decision
- no crisis-management instruments for sustainable Management of economic structures
The main development in the last years:
2014 – Science finds long term failures in age reading and assessment of Eastern Baltic cod. Since then science was not able to improve the methods and carry out sufficient age reading for a full assessment of this stock.
2016 – adoption of the long term management plan for the Baltic with target values for SSB and F. Since then the TAC-decisions are based on the plan.
2018 – Since about 10 years recruitment of western herring stock seems to decrease without any sign of overfishing. Against expectations the target value for Spawning Stock Biomass (MSY Btrigger) was increased from 110.000 to 150.000 tonnes instead of decreased due to reduced carrying capacity of the system after regime shift.
2018 – ICES predict 49.000 tonnes SSB for western Baltic cod (WBC) and full MSY-fishery in 2019.
2019 – ICES reduces the prediction for WBC by around 50% to 21.217 t which is below msy trigger of 21.876 t.
July 2019 – Commission takes “immediate measures” and closes Eastern Baltic cod fishery also in the western area 24 for the rest of the year
- without consultation of the sector
- without proper announcement
- without impact assessment
- without any extra aid for fisheries suffering from the closures
- without full support of science and Governments of the Baltic states
August 2019 – Commissions proposal for 2020 continues with closure of Eastern Baltic cod fishery, also in area 24. Further to this, the Commission proposes a closure for the three most important months in the fishery for Western Baltic cod, ignoring the fact, that the stock is above MSY Btrigger in 2020.
It brings also severe reductions in western herring fishery because MSY Btrigger for SSB remains unrealistic high.
Would similar draconic measures be implemented if Mediterranean stocks were outside safe biological limits?
Consequences
It is our duty to give you clear information about the discussions in fisheries about serious consequences of Commissions actions in the Baltic.
If we all agree that the reasons for unwanted and unknown developments of the stocks are not caused by overfishing, we must stress that the present scientific advice is not any more able to serve as the single basis for sustainable fishery without relevant increase of scientific effort and knowledge.
A decrease of SSB target values is the logical consequence of a regime shift that reduces the capacity for recruitment of commercial stocks.
In many cases unexpected catastrophes lead to additional aid programs e.g. heat and drought in agriculture and forestry.
BFA hopes with this statement to gain support for a management that will not only protect the fish stocks, but will also enable the fishery to survive 2020 – and beyond. Protection of the stocks is a key element of a sustainable exploitation, but so is the protection of the fishermen.
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BFA is a collaboration between the largest commercial fisheries organisations in Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Sweden.
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