The commercial fishing fleets in Europe have too much authority in the EU decision making process. (The US is not very impressive in this area either though at least there's a limited counter-balance with Canada in the region.) The EU lacks a long term sustainability program for fishing, voting over and over to allow catch limits that are higher than the market can sustain. As much as I prefer fish over meat I refuse to eat cod due to the stress on the stock. At markets I've witnessed baby swordfish for sale despite being well under the legal size limit. Even far away from the EU, their fishing fleets buy their way into African fishing territories, eliminating locals from the regional waters.
Every time the EU has a chance to bring sensible controls to the commercial fishing industry, they fold. I've never seen such desolate fishing along coastal waters as I do in France and it looks as though the offshore fishing won't last much longer either. The EU commercial fishing policies are as bad as the US (Bush) climate change policies, possibly even worse. There's simply no rational basis for the decisions other than giving the commercial fleets everything they want, which is precisely what Bush has done with climate change in the US. Dumb, dumb, dumb.
Earlier this week, however, a vital opportunity to pull the bluefin back from the brink was missed when the official body charged with preventing the stock from collapsing agreed to allow catch quotas for 2009 far higher than its own scientists recommended.
Amid a chorus of protests and dismay from conservationists, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), meeting in Marrakech, Morocco, endorsed a total allowable catch (TAC) of 22,000 tonnes for next year – while ICCAT's own scientists had recommended a TAC ranging from 8,500 to 15,000 tonnes per year, warning there were real risks of the fishery collapsing otherwise.
The scientists also urged a seasonal closure during the fragile spawning months of May and June, but the meeting agreed to allow industrial fishing up to 20 June.
The decision, which was branded "a disgrace" by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and fiercely attacked by other conservation bodies, was driven by the European Union, amid allegations that the EU had threatened developing nations with trade sanctions if they supported lower catch limits and extended closed seasons. During the meeting, the names of some countries appeared and disappeared from the more scientifically based proposals.
