The recent paper by Pauly and Zeller, which sought to reconstruct global fishery catches, has argued that removals have been 30% higher than previous estimates. Their findings have been disputed by the FAO.
Better quality data will help to end disputes over total catches and enable effective management to be improved.
This brings us to the effectiveness of the landing obligation, which has been phased in to European fisheries since the CFP reform.
When the landing obligation was introduced, it was intended to improve catch and mortality data, and lead to a more efficient use of scarce resources. The EU decided that waste would not be an acceptable practice. These opportunities, provided by the discard ban, are being squandered.
In the Baltic cod fisheries, the creativity of the fishing industry has been hampered by overly prescriptive gear regulations. These regulations limit cod trawls in the Baltic to only two different types of codends, the T90 or Bacoma, with no room for effective modification. This has restricted fishers ability to adapt to the new policy.
That said, the response of many within industry who have unilaterally decided to continue discarding and refuse to allow fisheries observers to travel aboard their vessels is making a bad situation worse. This also reflects badly on control agencies within the Baltic who may beย turning a blind eye by failing to enforce their own regulations.
Fishers should have more flexibility with regard to the gears they use and managers need to better enforce the control regulations.
Poor quality data leads and disagreements over the state of stocks have serious implications for fishery managers and stakeholders. They lead to TAC setting having to be more cautious. The CFP is a conservation tool with the precautionary principle as its cornerstone. Therefore, the more uncertainty over data, fishing mortality and MSY values necessitates lower quotas.
In order to make European fisheries more sustainable, the landing obligation needs to function effectively. This will require changes from both industry and management.