EU ‘must get tougher’ on trawling

By Véronique Vallières

Date: 04/11/04

CAMPAIGNERS are accusing the European Union of taking too soft an attitude towards environmentally damaging trawlers, in the run-up to a vote at the United Nations on 16 November.

During consultations that ended yesterday (3 November) in New York, the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition (DSCC) called for a moratorium on trawling the bottom of the oceans. Blaming the EU for trying to block the moratorium because of fisheries interests, the DSCC is urging the bloc to take swift action against the fishing practice.

Over the last three weeks, the UN negotiated the drafting of two resolutions on Sustainable Fisheries and Oceans and the Law of the Sea, which would ensure that marine life in international waters is protected.

The damaging fishing technique involves deploying enormous fishing nets that sweep across the ocean floor.

Member states that make use of so-called bottom trawling are Spain, Portugal, Estonia, Denmark, Lithuania and Latvia.

DSCC member Greenpeace said this practice would rapidly destroy deep-sea biodiversity if it were not suspended soon.

"Bottom trawling destabilizes the ocean," said Katharine Mill, Greenpeace European unit media officer. "There is a real need for concerted efforts to protect it."

Greenpeace's oceans policy advisor Rosanna Micciche talks about a "domino effect".

"If the EU is positive on this issue, other member states will follow. So far the EU has rather been a champion of the negative attitude," she said.

But officials at the European Commission's directorate-general for fisheries say that they are already tackling the issue.

They highlight recent measures proposed by the Commission to protect deep-sea biodiversity around the Azores, Madeira and the Canary Islands.

"We have no objection to the objective in principle and it's a problem that we have been trying to counter for years," said a Commission official.

"But the moratorium tactic is inefficient; what the NGOs propose is like wind.

"We prefer the regional approach, which has the merit of being effective."

The official said that despite pressure from Spain and other EU countries to adopt a stronger position on deep-sea fishing, "it is not a contentious topic for EU countries".

Bottom trawling is unregulated in large areas of the high seas.

In February 2004, more than 1,000 scientists issued a statement calling bottom trawling a "great threat" and urged rapid action to protect deep-sea corals and other vital ecosystems.

Article says that campaigners were accusing the European Union of taking too soft an attitude towards environmentally damaging trawlers, in the run-up to a vote on a resolution on Sustainable Fisheries and Oceans at the United Nations on 16 November 2004. Bottom trawling remained unregulated in large areas of the high seas.

FAO: Fisheries Department http://www.fao.org/fi/default_all.asp

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