Several NGOs, including Oceana, called on the European Commission on Tuesday 3 May to present a legislative proposal to ban “destructive fishing” and industrial extractive activities in marine protected areas, after the European Parliament vote (see EUROPE 12944/7).
Oceana welcomes the European Parliament’s call for a ban on industrial extractive activities, “which includes fishing practices such as bottom trawling” in all marine protected areas.
Caroline Roose MEP (Greens/EFA, France) is very angry: “By opposing a ban on bottom trawling in all marine protected areas, conservative groups and some liberals have accepted that the vast majority of these areas are protected only on paper and that the most destructive fishing techniques are still allowed”.
According to her, the Renew Europe group has been “divided in this huge ‘blue washing’ operation”. About 35 members of the group, including Pascal Canfin, chairman of the Environment Committee, voted against the amendment by Pierre Karleskind, head of the Fisheries Committee.
The European Parliament is therefore calling for a ban on the use of harmful techniques in its “strictly protected” marine areas, based on the best available scientific advice, and for a ban on environmentally harmful industrial extraction activities (mining and fossil fuel exploitation) in these areas. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)