On Monday 22 February, the European Parliament Committee on Fisheries recommended various actions to limit marine waste from fishing operations.
Catherine Chabaud (Renew Europe, France), whose draft report on the subject of marine waste was unanimously adopted in the Committee on Fisheries, with just three abstentions, said: “We need to act sensibly with regard to areas where waste accumulates, while at the same time emphasising prevention, research and innovation, so that we can incorporate circularity throughout the whole of the fisheries sector, which currently involves a lot of challenges”.
Chabaud explained that fisheries is the sector most seriously affected by marine pollution, with loss of income estimated at between 1% and 5%, depending on the area of operations. Fishermen have to sort the waste from their catches and often have to repair torn or broken nets and trawls. Marine waste also regularly damages the ships themselves, mainly by blocking the propellers.
The MEPs want to place the fishermen at the heart of this plan, and so are pushing for both upstream (designing environmentally friendly fishing gear, simplifying materials and polymers, collecting waste in accumulation areas, strengthening the circular economy in the fisheries and aquaculture sector) and downstream solutions (facilitating and enhancing the collection of marine waste, increasing the recycling and reuse of marine waste in the economy).
The 34 compromise amendments presented were endorsed.
The MEPs noted that 70% of marine waste entering the sea ends up on the seabed and that the cumulative mass of waste floating on the surface represents “only 1% of plastic in the ocean”.
In adopting the draft report, the European Parliament committee: - stressed the need to revise the EU’s integrated maritime policy with a view to establishing a more strategic framework, including on marine litter, incorporating all waste and marine environmental laws; - called for the eco-design of fishing gear, to be supported by the swift adoption of guidelines on the development of harmonised standards for a circular economy for fishing gear; - supported the marking of materials used in fishing gear by means of product passports and supported research into alternative and environmentally friendly materials for use in fishing gear, including polymers; - recommended an integrated approach allowing fishing vessels to land marine waste in any EU port (the Commission is invited to present implementing acts laying down eligibility criteria for a reduced charge for ‘green ships’).
In addition, the Commission is also requested: - to consider “phasing out” expanded polystyrene containers and packaging made from fisheries products (in order to replace single-use plastics with sustainable alternatives); - assess the proposal on the marking of fishing gear, using new geolocation technologies to help locate and collect lost gear (with appropriate funding programmes); - to develop new tools to identify and track fishing gear lost at sea.
Finally, MEPs proposed strengthening initiatives to improve understanding and limit nano- and microplastic pollution. The vote in the European Parliament plenary might take place at the end of March.
The compromise amendments can be found at: https://bit.ly/3sdFJZg (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)