Brussels, 09/09/2008 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament fisheries committee held a conference on Tuesday 9 September, with the aim of finding ways to improve the dialogue between scientists and fishermen.
France “is assessing the difficulties that arise when scientific advice is not understood or not accepted by fishermen,” said Sylvie Alexandre, Head of Sea Fisheries and Aquaculture at the French Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. She noted, on behalf of Minister Michel Barnier, who was unable to attend, and also as the representative of the French Presidency of the Council of Ministers of the EU, that fishing was currently going through a “period of crisis” throughout all of Europe because of the spiralling costs of fuel, the state of the resource and the ever-weakening state of certain stocks. It was essential, then, she said, that there should be agreement by all (fishermen, governments and civil society) on the state of the stocks and of the resource.
She suggested that, firstly, there had to be better regular dialogue between scientists and fishermen. It was first and foremost up to research institutes to determine scientific programmes, but, as these were being drawn up, it might be useful, the French Ministry postulated, to build in consultation with the other actors, principally the fishermen, for their comments and suggestions. Since they work on the sea daily, fishermen had “lots to say” on this, Alexandre highlighted. She also argued for Regional Advisory Councils to be consulted when programmes were being drawn up for implementing the regulation on data gathering (observers, self-sampling, environmental data).
Dialogue between fishermen and scientists takes place when stocks are evaluated and scientific opinion, on which fishing possibilities depend, is formulated. Several member states have developed successful partnerships between scientists and fishermen. Alexandre urged researchers to show “greater transparency” and also to ensure that their opinions were fully understood by fisherman. Another great problem was the time it took scientific opinion to react to the state of the resource. As was the case with cod in the Celtic Sea (see EUROPE 9704), “often more than a year can elapse between a new situation arising and its being taken into account in management decision-making”. Reducing this reaction time, where possible, must be one of the priorities among the improvements to be brought to the procedure for issuing scientific opinions.
At Community level, the Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF) is responsible for issuing opinions on stocks (Ed: the Commission takes these opinions into account when preparing proposals on fishing quotas), but its means are relatively limited. The French Presidency says that there are several ways of improving the capabilities of European assessment: providing additional funding to the STECF or setting up a specific European agency, which could be involved in areas other than fisheries. Alexandre also highlighted the major input of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) on matters that go beyond the Community framework (North Sea, North-East America). However, with regard to resources in the European exclusive economic zone, “one may question using ICES at least on the institutional level,” Alexandre said, adding, “The EU is probably alone in the world in entrusting a multinational organisation with the task of issuing opinions on resources located in its exclusive economic zone”. It had to be acknowledged, however, that “there was no credible alternative,” she concluded.
Chairman of the EP fisheries committee Philippe Morillon (ALDE, France) stressed the need for firm proposals for improving reaction times and the time it took to produce scientific opinion. Fishermen complained that the information they brought from sea on the state of the resource was not taken into consideration, Morillon said.
“Confidence between fishermen and scientists has to be rebuilt. There is no alternative,” opined Fokion Fotiadis, Director General of DG MARE at the European Commission. He said that fishermen were providing more and more information and that there had been progress on making the work of ICES and the STECF more transparent. “Efforts must continue,” the Commission said. (L.C./transl.rt)