Ten lessons on the resilience of the EU common fisheries policy towards climate change and fuel efficiency - A call for adaptive, flexible and well-informed fisheries management

Abstract

To effectively future-proof the management of the European Union fishing fleets we have explored a suite of case studies encompassing the northeast and tropical Atlantic, the Mediterranean, Baltic and Black Seas. This study shows that European Union (EU) fisheries are likely resilient to climate-driven short-term stresses, but may be negatively impacted by long-term trends in climate change. However, fisheries’ long-term stock resilience can be improved (and therefore be more resilient to increasing changes in climate) by adopting robust and adaptive fisheries management, provided such measures are based on sound scientific advice which includes uncertainty. Such management requires regular updates of biological reference points. Such updates will delineate safe biological limits for exploitation, providing both high long-term yields with reduced risk of stock collapse when affected by short-term stresses, and enhanced compliance with advice to avoid higher than intended fishing mortality. However, high resilience of the exploited ecosystem does not necessarily lead to the resilience of the economy of EU fisheries from suffering shocks associated with reduced yields, neither to a reduced carbon footprint if fuel use increases from lower stock abundances. Fuel consumption is impacted by stock development, but also by changes in vessel and gear technologies, as well as fishing techniques. In this respect, energy-efficient fishing technologies already exist within the EU, though implementing them would require improving the uptake of innovations and demonstrating to stakeholders the potential for both reduced fuel costs and increased catch rates. A transition towards reducing fuel consumption and costs would need to be supported by the setup of EU regulatory instruments. Overall, to effectively manage EU fisheries within a changing climate, flexible, adaptive, well-informed and well-enforced management is needed, with incentives provided for innovations and ocean literacy to cope with the changing conditions, while also reducing the dependency of the capture fishing industry on fossil fuels. To support such management, we provide 10 lessons to characterize ‘win-win’ fishing strategies for the European Union, which develop leverages in which fishing effort deployed corresponds to Maximum Sustainable Yield targets and Common Fisheries Policy minimal effects objectives. In these strategies, higher catch is obtained in the long run, less fuel is spent to attain the catch, and the fisheries have a higher resistance and resilience to shock and long-term factors to face climate-induced stresses.

Are Mediterranean marine threatened species at high risk by climate change?

“…Therefore, strategic, climate‐smart spatial planning and management is needed to cope with the combined effects of anthropogenic stressors and climate change (Almpanidou et al, 2021; Doxa et al, 2022). The governance of fisheries in the era of climate change should support a flexible, adaptive, and well‐informed ecosystem‐based management aiming to face environmental change and provide long‐term yields with reduced risks of stock collapse (Bastardie et al, 2022).…”

Adding to the mix – Challenges of mixed‐fisheries management in the North Sea under climate change and technical interactions

“…We did not consider updating reference points in response to climate change, so long‐term scenarios lack a degree of management adaptation (e.g. a shift in response to these changes; Bastardie et al, 2022; Travers‐Trolet et al, 2020). Additional effects could arise through changes in the distribution of stocks that are not currently included in the model, like hake, either intensifying or relaxing choking situations for different fisheries (Baudron & Fernandes, 2015).…”

“…Integrating climate effects into fisheries management can provide necessary responsiveness to react to changes in productivity with the potential to allow sustainable harvesting even under negative effects of climate change (Bastardie et al, 2022). For North Sea cod, both mismanagement and climate change‐related factors were responsible for the current low productivity regime (Brander, 2018; Engelhard et al, 2014).…”

Including older fish in fisheries management: A new age‐based indicator and reference point for exploited fish stocks

“…Such links between positive stock status and exploitation slightly below F MSY also mirror recent calls for MSY to be used as a limit, and not as a target, by fisheries managers (ICES, 2022a). In fact, this relationship is foundational to the concept of 'Pretty Good Yield' as proposed by Hilborn (2010) and others (Earle, 2021;Rindorf et al, 2017), and has even been extended in a multispecies context by Rindorf et al (2017) to account for stock effects on ecosystems, sustainability and socio-economic benefits (Bastardie et al, 2022).…”