At the latest ‘European Parliament Forum on Recreational Fisheries and Aquatic Environment’ on Wednesday 11 October, chaired by MEPs Niclas Herbst (EPP, German) and Ska Keller (Greens/EFA, German), speakers called for a rethink of the allocation of total allowable catches (TACs) in order to reach fairer and more sustainable decisions.
David Mitchell, from the European Anglers Alliance (EAA) and Kevin Haase, from the Thünen Institute on Baltic Fisheries, presented solutions that exist in Canada and the United States to better take into account the social, economic and environmental impact and the interests of recreational fishermen when deciding on annual TACs and quotas.
“We have a structural problem in the EU: the Common Fisheries Policy does not recognise recreational fishing as an integral part of fisheries management”, said David Mitchell.
EU fishermen, represented by the EAA and the European Fishing Tackle Trade Association (EFTTA), have called for fisheries policy choices to be based on scientific data and focused on the long term, and to take account of recreational fishing observations. They called for better data to be collected at EU level on the impact of recreational fishing on stocks and the economic value that their activities generate. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)