One of the EFTTA selected lobby priorities this year and next year is the on-going reform of the EU´s Common Fisheries Policy (the CFP).
EFTTA are very happy that Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall launched the “Hugh´s Fish Fight” campaign. The campaign makes it known to the public at large, what an enormous waste of fish and other sea creatures are thrown back to the sea dead due to a broken management system, which allows, and even encourages, this to happen.
EFTTA is not trying to pretend that there is a quick fix to end all discards here and now – there is not. But one thing we would like to single out as a most important element for the CFP reform and to bring down the amount of discard is the need to increase the mesh sizes in the nets used to catch fish. The small mesh sizes increase the problems with by-catches and mixed fisheries, which makes it difficult to manage the fisheries properly. Small mesh sizes increase the catches of other fish species than the target ones. Small mesh also means, of course, more small fish caught. Strangely enough most of the legal minimum landing sizes (MLS) set for various fish species in the EU fisheries are set below the fish´s spawning size. We argue that all fish should be allowed to spawn at least once or twice before being caught. This will help to increase the total biomass in our seas to the benefit of all marine life, the eco-systems, fish and fishers.
We are happy to learn that Hugh´s Fish Fight campaign and the petition – now close to 650,000 signatures – has made a great impression with the EU fisheries commissioner Maria Damanaki and politicians in the UK and abroad. This gives hope that his reform will bring the changes needed.
Read more about the impact on the decision makers here: www.fishfight.net/on-leaders
An EFTTA CFP reform contribution here: http://ec.europa.eu/fisheries/reform/docs/eaa_en.pdf
EFTTA´s text on Hugh´s Fish Fight home page here: www.fishfight.net/supporting-organisations
