Public subsidies have supported the development of electric trawling in Europe

In the 2000s, the Dutch beam trawl fleet was in chronic deficit and under pressure to reduce its environmental impact. Instead of converting to selective fishing gears, it successfully lobbied the European Commission with the support of public authorities and scientists to obtain derogations against formal scientific advice to practice a prohibited technique: electric trawling. Since then, electric trawling has expanded beyond regulatory threshold: 84 large trawlers now catch the vast majority of the Dutch flatfish quota, causing detrimental socio-environmental impacts. To assess whether the European Union's fisheries policies fulfilled legal objectives and implemented the 2030 Agenda, it appeared crucial to quantify how much public financial aid had been provided to the Dutch fishing sector for its conversion to electric trawling. The financial information enabling this evaluation was first concealed but was eventually obtained. We show that the institutional opacity surrounding electric trawling was not serendipitous and has served to dissimulate allocations of public monies to a prohibited fishing method (otter trawl), illegal licenses, and falsely ‘scientific’ fishing. In breach of EU laws, 20.8 million EUR of structural funds have so far been granted to this sector in the form of direct subsidies, i.e. over 30 times the amount acknowledged by the fishing industry. The findings presented here lift part of the veil surrounding electric trawling, but the complete reconstruction of the impacts of this fishing method can only be done when decision-makers and scientists disclose all data in full transparency and become the warrants of the public interestS

Temporal Change and Fishing Down Food Webs in Small-Scale Fisheries in Morondava, Madagascar

Small-scale fisheries (SSFs) are often undervalued and unmanaged as a result of a lack of data. A study of SSFs in Menabe, western Madagascar in 1991 found diverse catches and a productive fishery with some evidence of declining catches. Here we compare data collected at the same landing site in 1991 and 2011. 2011 had seven times greater total monthly landings due to more people fishing and higher individual catches. Catch composition showed a lower mean trophic level in 2011 indicating overfishing, the true extent of which may be masked due to changes in technology and fishing behaviours. Limited management action since 2011 means these trends have likely continued and an urgent need for both greater understanding, and management of these fisheries remains if they are to continue providing food and income for fishing communities

Destructive fishing : an expert‐driven definition and exploration of this quasi‐concept

Numerous policy and international frameworks consider that “destructive fishing” hampers efforts to reach sustainability goals. Though ubiquitous, “destructive fishing” is undefined and therefore currently immeasurable. Here we propose a definition developed through expert consultation: “Destructive fishing is any fishing practice that causes irrecoverable habitat degradation, or which causes significant adverse environmental impacts, results in long-term declines in target or nontarget species beyond biologically safe limits and has negative livelihood impacts.” We show strong stakeholder support for a definition, consensus on many biological and ecological dimensions, and no clustering of respondents from different sectors. Our consensus definition is a significant step toward defining sustainable fisheries goals and will help interpret and implement global political commitments which utilize the term “destructive fishing.” Our definition and results will help reinforce the Food and Agricultural Organization's Code of Conduct and meaningfully support member countries to prohibit destructive fishing practices

Past, present and future of publicly-funded European Union's fishing access agreements in developing countries

Since the 19th century, with the expansion and industrialization of extractive industries, maritime jurisdictions have shifted from chiefly open-access to a regime regulated by the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). This thesis examines fishing access agreements, i.e., legal tools that allow one country to fish in the waters of another one following mutually-agreed terms. The emphasis is on the particular fisheries access agreements funded by EU-taxpayers, and the aim is to test the common belief that their economic, social, and environmental provisions have improved over time vis-à-vis the host countries. To date, only little has been published on this topic, and thus this examination of their provisions is of paramount importance for the policy realm. Chapters 1 and 2 challenge the legal ground of such agreements, which rests on the questionable notion of fisheries 'surplus' that must be made available to other countries according to UNCLOS. Flaws in the estimation of surplus are noted: in most cases, the surplus cannot be calculated due to inaccurate catch estimates, and ceding a potential surplus to foreign countries results in hard-to-justify decreases in domestic catches. Chapter 3 argues that since their inception, the level at which these agreements have been subsidized remained extremely high (around 75%); the remainder (paid by fleets' operators) represented only a small fraction of their gross revenue, highlighting a potential imbalance in allocation of benefits. Finally, Chapter 4 demonstrates that despite advances in most social and environmental provisions, the one regarding the supervision of foreign vessels by observers (arguably the most critical provision of all) has declined. These results beg the question: how legitimate are such access agreements? While they are lauded for their transparency, they appear to remain mostly beneficial to European interests and poorly monitored. Also, due to the fishing expansion occurring in host countries and ongoing international trade reforms, one can only wonder whether such historical 'pay-fish-and-go' agreements still ought to continue.Science, Faculty ofResources, Environment and Sustainability (IRES), Institute forGraduat

Fisheries Centre Research Reports, Vol. 23, No. 2

Although the 'national' catch reconstructions presented here emphasize the coastal and thus domestic catches of Western Indian Ocean countries, the attention of their fisheries ministries is often directed elsewhere, i.e., at the tuna fisheries that have made the Western Indian Ocean a bonanza for European (mainly Spanish and French) and East Asian fishing fleets.2 These fisheries are very lucrative, and the Western Indian Ocean countries that permit tuna vessels to operate in their Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) get a share — albeit small — from access fees. But they should not forget their domestic fisheries because they are the ones that ensure — or at least contribute — to the (sea)food security of their populations. The eleven chapters in this report document that this contribution to seafood security is much higher than previously assumed, but also that it is sharply declining in several countries. Thus, this report suggests that it is time to devote more attention to coastal fisheries and to rehabilitate them, e.g., as achieved in Southern Kenya, where strong, positive interactions between governments, scientists and fishers enabled the banning of gears not suitable for sustainable reef fisheries, and the establishment of marine reserves. Hopefully, initiatives such as these can be duplicated throughout the region.Science, Faculty ofOceans and Fisheries, Institute for theUnreviewedFacultyGraduat

Sustainable objectives and commitments deceived by fisheries subsidies for ‘temporary cessations’ in times of COVID

International audienc

Sea Around Us project newsletter, issue 82, March/April 2014

CREAM Conference in Barcelona (Aylin Ulman). The Sea Around Us at FAO's Headquarters (Dyhia Belhabib). The Salish Sea in FishBase and SeaLifeBase (ML Deng Palomares and Nicolas Bailly).Science, Faculty ofOceans and Fisheries, Institute for theUnreviewedFacultyResearcherGraduat

Sea Around Us project newsletter, issue 80, November/December 2013

Discussing catch reconstructions in Senegal (Dyhia Belhabib). Fostering collaboration in the Gulf of Guinea (Viviane Koutob and Duncan Copeland).Science, Faculty ofOceans and Fisheries, Institute for theUnreviewedFacultyResearcherGraduat

When Large Administrative Databases Provide Less Relevant Information than Randomized Studies

International audienc

Sea Around Us project newsletter, issue 79, September/October 2013

Eating Bluefin (Laurenne Schiller). Off to Marseille! (Beau Doherty).Science, Faculty ofOceans and Fisheries, Institute for theUnreviewedFacultyResearcherGraduat