This in-depth piece examines the current revision of the EU fisheries control system within the wider history of overfishing in Europe — an issue that is now more than a century old.
MEP Grace O’Sullivan is quoted on the use of the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund to support integration of new technologies that would bring transparency to seafood supply chains and improve on-board safety for fishers. She cites the difficulties that are imposed by stiff competition between fishers over limited resources and the lack the political will to enforce effective fisheries control.
Speaking on the lack of ambition in Brussels to embrace electronic monitoring of fisheries, Stella Nemecky, EU fisheries policy expert at WWF-Germany, called the current proposals “a poverty test for the EU… None of them will guarantee that the fish that ends up on your plate has been caught by legal methods”.
The evidence for taking action is clear and the availability of tools, including electronic monitoring, are widely available. But what progress will be made in Brussels to secure effective fisheries control remains to be seen.
Click here to read the full article (in German, behind paywall).