Report | October 22, 2019
Joint NGO recommendations on the setting of Northeast Atlantic fishing opportunities for 2020
On behalf of The Pew Charitable Trusts, Oceana, ClientEarth, Seas At Risk, FishSec and Our Fish, we present our recommendations on the setting of Northeast Atlantic fishing opportunities for 2020.
Overall, we urge EU fisheries ministers and the Commissioner to take our recommendations into account during the upcoming Council meetings and to ensure that total allowable catches (TACs) set for 2020 meet the objectives and legal requirements of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), that the Landing Obligation (LO) is effectively implemented, and that the process of setting annual fishing opportunities is transparent to citizens and stakeholders.
Progress in implementing the CFP
The transition period foreseen in Article 2(2) of the CFP, with the maximum sustainable yield (MSY) exploitation rate to be achieved by 2015 where possible, and at the latest by 2020 for all stocks, is all but over.
For the last five years NGOs have contributed detailed policy recommendations to resolve the challenges facing the management of various European fish stocks. However, it remains all too clear that insufficient progress is being made to deliver the CFP’s objectives due to a lack of political will. The Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee on Fisheries (STECF) emphasized in its latest CFP monitoring report that “many stocks remain overfished and/or outside safe biological limits, and that progress achieved until 2017 seems too slow to ensure that all stocks will be rebuilt and managed according to FMSY by 2020”1 .
According to the STECF official reporting, around 41 percent of analysed stocks (29 of 70) remain overfished in relation to the MSY exploitation rate. This is down from 47 percent (33 of 70) in 2014 (Figure 1), a net reduction of just 4 overfished stocks since the entry into force of the CFP in 2014.
