On March 21, 2013 the ENVI Committee voted in favour (58 to 1) of a deep sea trawling ban at depths below 200 m. Unfortunately, the PECH Committee delayed their discussions because of an intervention by the industry as little as 12 hours before they were to meet. This delay tactic enables the deep-sea fishing industry’s desire to weaken or destroy the regulation.
Deep Sea fishing has been found to be much more destructive and in some views it should be banned in every part of the world. Deep sea bottom trawling and gill netting are considered to be very detrimental because the species they catch or damage need much more time to recover.
Struan Stevenson, a Scottish MEP and vice-president of the PECH committee along with Carmen Fraga Estevez, both signed a letter backing the deep sea fishing industry’s request of presenting its case a second time. Stevenson stated that he hopes that the extra hearing in June 2013, in Brussels will “enable us to arrive at a more balanced decision which will have a long term benefit for the sector and for the future of sustainable deep sea fishing.”
Chris Davies, a MEP from the United Kingdom, stated that he does not see the use of having a second impact assessment as it would be very unlikely to expose information that MEPs don’t already have available. He also stated that “Deep sea fishing amounts to about 1 per cent of the total catch in the EU, yet because of slow rates of recovery it’s environmentally very unsustainable”
The move to have a new impact assessment, hearing and new deadline for amendments means that the regulation could be “watered down” or at worse it will be too late to get the new legislation in place before the Euro-elections in May 2014.