On Monday 27 February, the European Commission said it did not have reliable data about the biomass of fish stocks for calculating the maximum sustainable yield (MSY).
The European Parliament’s fisheries committee held a hearing on Monday afternoon on the state and evolution of fish stock biomass for fish managed by the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). Commission representative Kenneth Patterson said that when they had reliable biomass data, the Commission would be happy to make use of it. There is reliable data for tuna, but this is characterised by great uncertainty, said the Commission, explaining that it mostly used information about mortality per species that they use for assessing maximum sustainable yields.
Rainer Froese of the Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research (GEOMAR) explained that of the 397 species of fish in 2013-2015, only 15% were above the MSY in terms of biomass. Some 80% of species in the Mediterranean are overfished, explained the expert. Froese said that sustainable fishing since 2015 had only been done for a third of fish stocks (including in the Mediterranean zone) and sustainable catches could have been higher than 5 million tonnes (+57%) if the stocks had been fished using MSY.
John Pope of NRC (Europe) Ltd. Said he had developed an interactive multi-species model for getting a clearer view of the situation in the North Sea, which calculated MSY and the impact on biomass. He stressed the need to avoid fish with too low a level of reproduction.
Michael Andersen of Danish Fishermen Producer Organisation (DFPO) noted a positive change in fish stocks. In the North Sea, things are going well, and also in the Baltic, he said. He presented the Danish fishing industry’s view that there was too much focus on targets and not enough on how to achieve them. He called for flexibly in the rules for cod in the Baltic.
Markus Knigge of Pew Charitable Trusts said healthy fish stocks were needed for the good of the environment and ecosystems and also to make fishing profitable. He said the EU had a long way to go before it puts an end to overfishing. He regretted the absence of assessment of progress in achieving biomass targets. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)