Lithuania currently holds the Presidency of the EU, at a time when the €6.5 billion EU fisheries subsidy package, the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) is being reformed. This fund will support EU fisheries from 2014-2020 and has the potential to transform our fishing practices.
Key to achieving this shift are improvements in data collection as well as control and enforcement. Therefore, it was disappointing to see the Lithuanian-led Council push for cuts to the data collection budget given that 50% of EU fish stocks that have quotas have a poor scientific basis for their quotas, not forgetting the vast majority of unregulated fish species for which we have even less information on.
At the Race for the Baltic press conference, the EMFF package was discussed by fishermen, scientists and FISH. All agreed that increased funding for data collection and control should be prioritised. Moreover, a minimum amount of money for these measures should be ring-fenced, as during the previous funding periods several Member States failed to use their funding allocation for research in spite of the significant quantity of data poor stocks.
Moreover, at the press conference the potential of funding for the construction of new vessels was criticised. Member States such as Lithuanian which joined the EU in 2004 restructured their fleets as a condition of joining the Union, and removed much of their surplus capacity.
However, their fleet is in a relatively poor state of repair when compared with Sweden and Denmark for example. Countries which have been members of the EU for longer were given money to modernise their vessels, although this has been a key driver for overfishing and has reduced the income available to fishermen. So for the Baltic to avoid building up surplus capacity once again, it was pointed out that money for engine modernisation and the construction of new vessels should be avoided. These have proved counterproductive in the Mediterranean, where 88% of assessed stocks are overfished, and also punish the most efficient vessels by skewing the supposed level playing field.
During our time in Lithuania it was evident that a long-term perspective is required for the fishing industry to be self-sustaining. Throwing money at private companies creates perverse incentives, and is an alarming policy to pursue when research shows that rebuilding fish stocks above their maximum sustainable yield is sensible from an environmental perspective and also increases profitability and employment within the industry.
RACE FOR THE BALTIC (RFTB) is a multi-stakeholder campaign calling for action and implementation of environmentally sustainable and scientifically supported practices throughout the region in order to restore the Baltic Sea environment. RFTB was initiated, and is coordinated, by Zennström Philanthropies, Coalition Clean Baltic (CCB), the Fisheries Secretariat (FISH), and Oceana.