On his arrival at the EU Council meeting on Monday 18 November, Spanish Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries Luis Planas indicated that he was jointly requesting, with his French and Italian counterparts, Fabrice Loher and Francesco Lollobrigida respectively, a freeze on the current fishing effort (days at sea) in the Mediterranean for 2025 in order to save the fishing fleets.
The European fisheries ministers have discussed proposals for total allowable catches (TACs) and quotas for 2025 in the Mediterranean, as well as in the Atlantic.
“We believe that applying the regulation in the Western Mediterranean has led to a very significant reduction in the number of working days for vessels over the last five years, and that the maximum sustainable yield has only been partially achieved”, explained Mr Planas, who advocates “looking for new ways to achieve the objectives without fishing ports disappearing”.
The Spanish minister referred to the need to strike a balance between the state of biological stocks and the economic and social impact of the proposed measures, hoping to raise this issue with future Fisheries Commissioner Costas Kadis, so that he can take it into account when the ministers have to agree on 2025 TACs and quotas on 8 and 9 December.
Fishing effort reduced by 40% in 5 years. Fabrice Loher, the French minister delegate for Fisheries, also said that the measures to reduce fishing effort were unacceptable to fishermen. “We are at a breaking point that could jeopardise the entire industry. If there are fewer volumes at the auctions, they will no longer be profitable, and if there are no auctions, there will be no wholesale fish trade, with the risk of causing problems for the entire industry”, explained Mr Loher. He says that a joint declaration by the three countries in question aims to move away from this rationale of reducing fishing effort, which has been cut by 40% in 5 years, and further reductions in fishing effort would be unacceptable.
He called for a review of this management plan, to allow fishing activities to have a future in the region.
The profitability of the EU fishing fleet is improving. On Monday, the European Commission published the 2024 annual economic report (https://aeur.eu/f/ecu ) on the EU fishing fleet, which shows that the fleet’s economic performance has substantially improved, with gross profits up compared to 2022 and 2023 to reach €1,673 million in 2024, according to forecasts.
This improvement is attributed to factors such as progress in stock sustainability, higher average first-sale prices for several key species, reduced fishing capacity, lower fuel prices and reduced fuel consumption, explains the Commission.
Another finding is that fleets targeting stocks that have been managed sustainably for several years tend to improve their profitability and salaries. The study also shows that adopting less fuel-intensive fishing techniques not only brings environmental benefits, but also reduces costs and strengthens socio-economic resilience. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)