Overfishing ME-2
Marine
Environment & Coastal Zones
Pressure
1 Indicator
definition and unit of measurement
Total
catch per year of quota and non quota fish, shellfish and crustacean species by
sea area, expressed in metric tonnes per year.
2 Placement
in the framework
5EAP:
Not
applicable.
Agenda
21
:
Calls
for policies and actions in various areas, that take into account the
vulnerability and availability of natural resources and to increase efficiency
in the use of these resources. Chapter 17
:
Protection of the oceans, all kinds of seas and coastal areas,
deals with overfishing in some detail including introduction of selective
fishing methods that prevent the catch of non-commercial species and juvenile
fish, ownership in plots and restocking programmes. Shellfish resources are
hardly touched upon.
International
conventions and agreements:
Article
130 of the
Treaty
on the European Union
(Maastricht, 1992)
calls for prudent and rational utilisation of natural resources. The
Conference
of London (1946), Dublin (1958), London (1960), Copenhagen (1961), Hamburg
(1962) and London (1963) regulate meshes of fishing nets and size limits of
fish. The
Conference
of Washington (1949) controls the catch
es
of tropical tuna. The
Conferences
of Tokyo (1952
and
1978)
and of Moscow (1992) regulate high sea fisheries in the North Pacific Ocean. The
Agreement
of Stockholm (1962) and
Protocol
of Stockholm (1972) call for protection of the salmon in the Baltic Sea. The
Convention
of London (1964) regulates high sea fisheries and the convention of Rio de
Janeiro (1966) calls for conservation of the Atlantic tuna. The
Convention
of London (1967) conducts fishing operations in the North Atlantic. The
Convention
of Rome (1969) calls for conservation of the living resources in the South East
Atlantic. The
Conventions
of Gdansk (1973) and of Warsaw (1982) regulate fishing and conservation of
living resources in the Baltic and the Belts. The
Convention
of Washington (1948) and the
Protocol
of Washington (1956) regulate whaling. The
Convention
of Geneva
(1958)
regulates fishing and conservation of living resources of the high sea. The
Convention
of Ramsar (1971) and the
Protocol
of Paris (1982) protect wetlands of international importance. The
Convention
of Ottawa (1978) establishes multilateral co-operation in North West Atlantic
fisheries. The
Convention
of Honiara (1979) establishes control on South Pacific fisheries. The
Convention
of Canberra (1980) protects Antarctic marine living resources. The
Convention
of London (1980) establishes multilateral co-operation in North East Atlantic
fisheries. The
Convention
of Reykjavik (1982) calls for conservation of the salmon in the North Atlantic
Ocean. The
Treaty
of Port Moresby (1987) regulates South Pacific fisheries. The
Convention
of Wellington(1989) prohibits fishing with long drift nets in the South
Pacific. The
Treaty
of Honiara (1992) introduces surveillance and law enforcement on South Pacific
fisheries. The
Convention
of Canberra (1993) calls for conservation of South Pacific bluefin tuna. The
Convention
of Washington (1994)
finally
regulates conservation and management of pollack resources in the Central
Bering Sea. The World Charter for Nature (1982) proclaims that fisheries
practices shall be adapted to the natural characteristics and constraints of
given areas.
Ranking:
Core
ranking:
2
(50%)
Policy
Relevance:
1
(3.4)
Analytical
Soundness:
3
(3.0)
Responsiveness:
7
(2.7)
Most
appropriate related state indicator:
The
coastal and marine areas where all here native populations of fish and
shellfish are maintained at levels that can produce the maximum sustainable
yield taking into consideration their relation to other species.
3 Significance
Purpose:
The
indicator represents the main anthropogenic pressure on fish and shellfish
resources.
Relevance:
Fishing
is an important industry in Europe, giving employment especially in remote
rural areas. World
-wide,
fish landings have increased almost 5 fold in the last 4 decades (
Agenda
21
,
Chapter
17)
.
Overfishing is known to widely occur throughout Europe. Current attempts to
eliminate overfishing have not succeeded. European Commission and Parliament
efforts to tackle the problems are increasing. The following quote from
“The
common fisheries policy beyond 2002
”E-7final,
produced for DG X and printed by the European Parliament
in
1997,
highlights the indicator potential of overfishing
:
E
conomics
has explained why overfishing occurs and only an economic solution will succeed
in conserving both stocks and a fishery
(industry)
at the same time
.
Linkages
to other pressure indicators:
Within
the marine and coastal zone the indirect links are to the various pollution
indicators as well as aquaculture and priority habitat loss, as improvements in
these areas, would provide a better base for fish/shellfish survival and hence
in some locations stock recruitment may be so great that current fishing
effort, could be sustained, rather than classed as overfishing.
Outside
the marine and coastal area, there is a linkage with RD
-9:
Exceedance of fish catch quota
.Targets:
Everybody
from fishermen to regulating authorities would profess to want to eliminate
overfishing, but what constitutes “over” will probably never be
agreed. Compromise estimates of sustainable catch may be agreed for areas and
species. If however a given fish species continues to decline one cannot be
sure whether this is due to incorrect targets or breach of controls set to
achieve the targets (mesh size, time at sea, actual landings reported...) or a
natural decline of the population associated with totally different causes such
as disturbance of nursery area.
4 Methodological
description and underlying definitions
Underlying
definitions and concepts:
The
underlying idea is that we can identify precisely the level of fishing (or
fishing mortality if you also consider by catch) which optimises yield and
anything above this we can quantify as
“overfishing”.
Measurement
methods:
The
indicator would be measured in metric tonnes per year per species fished in a
given defined area. It would probably be necessary to further define size
classes of the species caught
and in some cases (e.g. lobsters) the number of egg-bearing females
.
Limitations of the indicator:
Unfortunately
for most species our present knowledge of natural fluctuations in recruitment
is so poor, that we do not know what is a sustainable catch in a given year
with any degree of accuracy. Additionally the current catch figures of quota
species are known to be very unreliable, due to the ease of landing and selling
illegal catch. Thus as it stands, our indicator would have very little
credibility. However with improved research and control it could at least for
some species - especially those restricted to small areas or sessile shellfish
- be a feasible indicator.
Alternative
definitions:
Instead
of focusing on overfishing, which will always have the
highly
subjective
element of what is
“over”,
one might consider focusing on
either
fishing
effort
or
total catch
instead.
Th
e
former
may be derived from number of fishing hours of set gear and boats. Boats should
further be assigned weights depending on horse power and locating technology.
The
latter is already measured and could be made considerably more reliable by
tagging the route from net to table. This “fishing”, rather than
“overfishing” measure,
could
give a more accurate idea of pressure in a given year.
