It is reported that the European Commission, which is in session, today has agreed on a ban on deep-water trawling in its waters at a water depth large than 800 meters.
The EP (European Parliament) had already asked the Commission to do this a while back, but decision lay with the Commission acting on behalf of the Council (the assembled european governments).
For those who do not know it, the world-s oceans are seriously overfished and one specific point of concern of fishery scientists is bottom trawling and deepwater trawling of marine communities whose ecology is far from sufficiently understood.
Parliament's and Council's negotiators agreed on setting a depth limit of 800 metres, so that no deep sea fishing will take place beneath this limit. This new provision will protect the fragile vulnerable marine ecosystems of the deep sea bed.
A separate provision for protecting the Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems (VME) was added to the regulation, whereby for deep sea fishing activities below 400 metres if the quantity of VME indicators (detailed list annexed to the regulation) caught exceeds certain thresholds (defined in the new regulation) the vessel would need to immediately stop all fishing operations and resume only when it has reached an area at least five nautical miles away from the area it encountered VME. …
… 20% of EU vessels will need to have an observer (scientist) on board to ensure the collection of timely and accurate data.
The informal agreement will now need to be endorsed now by Parliament's Fisheries Committee and the Council. The plenary vote is foreseen for November.
A major force behind this decision was the growing pressure exerted by ecologist NGO, in this case an organisation called Bloom was a major citizen pressure group:
Brussels, June 30th 2016
After four years of legislative procedures, endless upstream lobbying by the fishing industry to try to prevent the French government and the European Commission from proposing a ban on deep-sea bottom trawling, an agreement has finally been found, this Thursday June 30th, between the three European institutions (Parliament, Council, Commission) sealing the reform of the deep-sea fishing regulation.
On the last day of the Council’s Dutch Presidency, the three institutions have adopted a series of important measures for the protection of European deepwater ecosystems, including the prohibition of deep-sea bottom trawling in all European waters below 800 meters and a legally binding mechanism for the closure of areas where vulnerable marine ecosystems such as corals or sponges are known or likely to occur.
The future European regulation will replace the weak and inadequate legislation dating from 2002, which still serves as legal framework for deep-sea fishing. The new European Union’s regulatory framework will live up to the provisions set forth by the resolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly on deep-sea fishing (see infographics).
The matter was highly controversial with the obvious other side, fishery industry (both industry and worker representatives) as well as consumer industry. The “rapporteur” (in the EU for such issues a deputee of the parliament is typically selected to “report” on the associated issues) was a French socialist MEP from the French West coast, where fishery is a strong traditional industry.
"When the European Commission originally proposed a ban on deep sea fishing, I made the bet that we could reconcile, socio-economic imperatives with environment protection ones, to further the cause of sustainable development. Contrary to claims made by prophets of doom, we have managed to strike a balance between fishing effort and ecology", said rapporteur Isabelle Thomas (S&D, FR).
That looks a bit different of course from the NGO’s side.
“BLOOM’s team has worked for more than eight years to ban deep-sea bottom trawling. The prohibition of this absurd, destructive and subsidized fishing method should have been adopted a long time ago but we had to deal with disinformation, lies, bad faith and dirty political manoeuvres by industrial lobbies and their institutional allies all along” says Claire Nouvian, founder of BLOOM. “Without the support of hundreds of thousands of citizens which put pressure on the main French fleet to stop deep-sea trawling, the EU would not have adopted this ban. We hope citizens realize that this victory is theirs and that without their mobilization and financial support, NGOs cannot work miracles. The ban is the most important measure of this regulation, it means the underwater deforestation taking place in the deep ocean without legal constraint will simply stop below 800 meters” estimates Nouvian.
In any case, since as a consequence of the Brexit, there is a greatly increased debate on progressive sites like this one whether the EU is not just a “capitalist club” (Old Labour-s view) or a part of “neoliberal oligarchy”, I thought its useful to highlight an example of what it actually does.
British fishers will hold this up as an example how they will now have indeed the profit of a new freedom if they arent affected by such rules; and they will claim a large part og the EU’s deepwater areas. However, if Scotland manages to stay with the EU, most of this part will stay with the EU too, not with England.
British ecologists (and oceanographers) will see it differently.
Your mileage may vary. This is what the EU does on a normal thursday. It is not generally appreciated by EU citizens either, except those who by themselves have developed an interest in such a theme.
Outside EU waters, there’s a de facto uncontrolled free for all on the ocean bottom, and the effects of it are a wholesale ecological disaster. I for one do not see how a “sovereignist” left has any answer to it.