Brussels, 30/07/2015 (Agence Europe) - NGOs Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF), Oceana and WWF ushered in a new era in fishing transparency, on Wednesday 29 July, with the launch of an online database, showing that 15,264 EU vessels were authorised to fish outside EU waters between 2010 and 2014.
This is the first time that the figures have been made public, following an access-to-information request by the NGOs to the European Commission. Maria José Cornax, fisheries campaign director of Oceana, stressed that transparency is “a key element for eradicating illegal fishing and ensuring sustainable fisheries”. She said that it is especially relevant for European vessels that have been authorised to operate in third countries and distant waters. “EU fishing vessels should adhere to the same social and environmental standards regardless of where or how they fish”, she argued.
The data provided by the European Commission are presented in an accessible online search engine, whofishesfar.org, where users can search by vessel, flag state, year and type of agreement (between the EU and a third country).
Eszter Hidas, EU policy officer for WWF's Illegal Fishing programme, says the information published should include an analysis of fishing activity in order to identify who is fishing, what, where and with which capacity. She believes that the database should include private partnership agreements between EU operators and third countries. “This will give us a complete overview of the global impact of the EU's fishing activity”, she states.
The database includes vessels authorised to fish under official European fisheries partnership agreements, in third country waters, high seas and in Regional Fisheries Management Organisations. However, it does not include the so-called “private agreements” between vessel owners and coastal states. (Lionel Changeur)