In a speech to the Fisheries Committee of the newly elected European Parliament, Commissioner Joe Borg has come out strongly for doing away with the present quota system, to substitute it with effort management.
“Replacing TACs and quotas by effort can be a very effective way of reducing the environmental impact of fisheries, and in particular of discards”, the Commissioner said. One way of effort management would be regulations of fishermen’s days at sea.
Mr. Borg, who has not made clear whether he will available for a second term in the new Commission to be elected this fall, opened his speech by stating that “we all know too well that the present system is still failing to deliver”. He referred to the current Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), which is to be replaced in 2012.
“What we need now are real solutions to the underlying systemic problems … Ecological sustainability must be our core principle which must not be compromised for short-term gain. Without ecological sustainability, there can be no future for the fishing industry or for the coastal communities that depend upon it”.
Naming the need to “finally tackle overcapacity” as the top priority, and fleetingly denouncing earlier efforts to reduce it by using taxpayers’ money to pay for scrappings as “both expensive and ineffective”, he held forth a system of transferable fishing rights as a possible way to introduce “a greater dose of economic sanity”.
Mr. Borg went on to admit that such a system could be used both, or either, for TACs and quotas, and for regulating effort.
“Every vessel would receive an allowance in days at sea, which the vessel owners would manage throughout the year”, he explained. “The idea here is that the skipper can land all catches. This would be interesting for mixed fisheries since it would greatly reduce discards. It would also take away any reason to under declare or falsely declare catches and would be easier to control”.
“For some this, too, may be radical thinking: but we need to explore every option we have available in our toolbox if we are to make our fisheries policy truly ‘fit for purpose’ in the 21 st century”, he added.
In a first reaction from the industry, The Scottish Fishermen’s Federation welcomed the Commissioner’s ideas.
“Nobody wants to see overfishing and the consequent downward spiral of commercial suicide”, commented SFF chief executive Bertie Armstrong.
“However, the consequences of using days at sea as the only control measure will require a great deal more thought. It is at best unpredictable and may, for some fisheries create more problems than it solves. Nevertheless, it is an encouragement that the Commissioner is prepared to be truly radical and look at all options”.