Brussels, 14/05/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Saturday 12 May, the organisation OCEAN2012 published a document which claims that European taxpayers' money is “fuelling overfishing”. OCEAN2012, a coalition of over 160 organisations dedicated to ending overfishing in the EU, says that, in Community waters, 63% of assessed stocks in the Atlantic, 82% in the Mediterranean and four out of the six stocks in the Baltic are overfished. “As stocks have declined, subsidies have fuelled overfishing by reducing the cost of fishing while increasing the capacity of fleets to catch fish”, OCEAN2012 says in a press release. The World Bank and FAO estimate that overfishing is costing $50billion a year globally, in the EU that is estimated to be €3.2billion for just 43 fish stocks, it goes on.
“Subsidising overfishing has meant subsidising environmental and economic failure, while healthy fish stocks could mean more fishing with more employment for marginalised communities”, said OCEAN2012 spokesperson Markus Knigge. “We appreciate that, after so many years of mismanagement, it is not easy to turn the tide; however, public funds should be directed to restoring fisheries not to fuel overfishing”, he went on. OCEAN2012 gave a number of examples of how public funds have been badly used: - between 2000 and 2008, public subsidies of €33.5 million were spent on modernising the fleet targeting endangered bluefin tuna, which was close to extinction between 2004 and 2008; - annually, about €850 million in EU subsidies is used to support structural measures, including vessel modernisation, but less than €50 million to support control and enforcement aid and less than €50 million for scientific data collection; - several operators engaged in illegal fishing activities continue to benefit from EU subsidies. Last year in Spain, for example, more than 80% of fisheries companies which have been fined but which have appealed against them, continued to receive subsidies. (LC/transl.rt)