Influencing the Common Fisheries Policy: The Green Paper
Summary
The UK statutory nature conservation agencies jointly consider
that some of the greatest adverse impacts on nature conservation in
the marine environment comes from fishing in excess of the
environment's capacity to support it and from certain types of
fishing activity.
We recognise also that any fisheries management in European
waters has to be compliant with the CFP. Consequently, we have been
considering in some depth over recent years how the CFP should be
reformed in order to meet nature conservation objectives while at
the same time ensuring a sustainable fishery. For such purposes, we
have approached this issue from the viewpoint of developing
measures directed at halting decline and deterioration in both
fisheries and nature conservation.
We welcome and support the great majority of the Commission's
proposals in the Green Paper and this is reflected in the comments
we offer in this document.
We believe that it is essential that there is a rapid
practical integration of environmental objectives into the CFP, and
these objectives are given equal status with social and economic
ones.
Within the fisheries sector, the greatest problem is of
over-capitalisation and of capacity far in excess of available fish
stocks, now or in the future. Over-fishing, partly driven by
over-capacity, is one of the greatest causes of environmental
damage in the marine environment.
We favour a more decentralised management framework, based on
regional seas, in which greater account is taken of the need to
sustain the marine environment. This can be brought about by the
adoption of an ecosystem-based approach to management. Further
integration could be achieved through the implementation of
existing commitments and legislation within the fisheries
sector.
We support the greater use of technical measures to reduce
impact on fish stocks and on the wider environment. Measures should
include a greater use of closed areas (both temporary and
permanent), methods to avoid the capture of unwanted fish,
preference for methods that have a lower overall environmental
impact and limits on the bycatch of some non-target
species.