Rebuilding fish stocks no later than 2015: will Europe meet the deadline?

Abstract

Maintaining or restoring fish stocks at levels that are capable of producing maximum sustainable yield is a legal obligation under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and has been given the deadline of no later than 2015 in the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation of 2002. Here, we analyse stock assessment data of all major fish stocks of the Northeast Atlantic to determine whether Europe will be able to deliver on this commitment, which it has helped to bring about. The analysis shows that, if current fishing pressure continues, 91% of the European stocks will remain below target. If European ministers in charge of fisheries were serious about meeting their obligations, they would have to reduce drastically fishing pressure and halt fishing completely on some stocks. But even if fishing were halted in 2010, 22% of the stocks are so depleted that they cannot be rebuilt by 2015. If current trends continue, Europe will miss the 2015 deadline by more than 30 years. We argue that, from a legal perspective, such repeated enactment of fisheries management measures, which are incapable of maintaining or restoring Bmsy, does not comply with the requirements contained in UNCLOS and may constitute a breach of the precautionary principle of European Community law.

Assessing the impact of spear fishing by using competitions records and underwater visual censuses

“…In Galicia, as in the rest of the European seas (Froese and Proelß 2010), there is growing concern regarding the long-term sustainability of local fish stocks (Freire and García-Allut 2000, Freire et al 2002. In this regard, it must be noted that of the 29 species targeted by this recreational fishery only C. conger supports a large commercial fishing effort (Pita et al 2008).…”

Quota implementation of the maximum sustainable yield for age-structured fisheries

“…In this regard, the EU promotes measures for implementing MSY. The process is under way in this direction as pointed by Cardinale et al (2013), but the EU will not be able to achieve the MSY target for all economically valuable fish stocks if the current trends continue (Froese and Proelß 2010). This paper analyzes the problem of designing quota shares allocation mechanisms or management systems to implement MSY harvesting conditions.…”

Credible Enforcement Policies Under Illegal Fishing: Does Individual Transferable Quotas Induce to Reduce the Gap Between Approved and Proposed Allowable Catches?

“…As a result, the European fisheries need a substantial reform due to the unsuccessful outcomes of the common fisheries policy (CFP) in the ecological, economic, and social dimensions (Froese and Proelss 2011;Da Rocha et al 2012a). Collusion between national fisheries advisers and industry has been suggested as one of the determinants of CFP failure (Froese and Proelss 2011;Da Rocha et al 2012a).…”

“…Collusion between national fisheries advisers and industry has been suggested as one of the determinants of CFP failure (Froese and Proelss 2011;Da Rocha et al 2012a). Enforcement-known as adherence to rules and agreements and punishing infractions when they are detected-is an essential component of a successful fisheries management policy (Ostrom 2000;Arnason 2006;Nøstbaken 2008).…”

“…There is a regular lack of enforcement at national fisheries authority level which affects most of the stocks analyzed. Member States fisheries enforcement is lax, with cases where actual catches exceeded the agreed amount by more than 100 % (Froese and Proelss 2011).…”