OUTCOME OF TRILATERAL FISH NEGOTIATIONS WAS A MISSED OPPORTUNITY

Outcome of trilateral fish negotiations was a missed opportunity. The conclusion of the first post-Brexit trilateral negotiations over shared fish stocks in the North Sea between the EU, Norway and the UK has demonstrated some progress to end overfishing, but gives little cause to celebrate said Our Fish and ClientEarth today. The three Parties missed opportunities for joint rebuilding of North Sea cod, establishment of effective controls and monitoring of catches, and greater transparency.

The NGOs welcomed the setting of fishing limits at, or below the maximum advised by scientists for four out of six fish species. But they warned that a failure by all parties to stop overfishing in the North Sea overall, or to take action to prevent illegal discarding, continues to undermine the urgently needed progress to restore ocean health.

Our Fish and ClientEarth strongly recommend that fisheries management by all three parties must become more precautionary, especially where data are limited and compliance low, and more effectively safeguard healthy, resilient marine ecosystems, in order to minimise the dangers of biodiversity loss and climate chaos.

“While we welcome the agreement made by the EU, UK and Norway to follow the scientific advice for the majority of fishing limits for shared fish stocks in 2021, we remain perplexed as to why the UK did not more strongly advocate for a rapid rebuilding of the North Sea cod population, which is suffering from persistent overfishing, especially because its recovery could support a thriving coastal UK fishing community,” said Rebecca Hubbard, Our Fish Programme Director.

“Setting fishing limits in line with scientific advice is crucial – but not enough unless everybody plays by the rules. In reality, while throwing dead fish back into the ocean is now largely illegal in the EU, it’s still happening at sea. To ensure actual catches are sustainable, the EU, Norway and the UK also need proper fisheries control and monitoring,” said Jenni Grossmann, Science and Policy Advisor at ClientEarth. “Turning a blind eye to illegal discards will lead to unsustainable catches at sea, even if fishing limits seem to follow the science on paper. Tools such as remote electronic monitoring can help fill the compliance gap.”

The EU, UK and Norway agreed to 2021 fishing limits for six jointly-managed North Sea species – cod, haddock, saithe, whiting, plaice and herring. Total Annual Catches (TAC) for saithe, whiting, plaice and haddock were set at or below the maximum advice from scientists. However, Our Fish and ClientEarth called the setting of the limit for North Sea cod 8% above scientific advice “deeply concerning”, due to the long-term overfishing of this population and the three parties’ acknowledgement that illegal discarding poses an ongoing risk to the health of all fish populations. In addition, some of the herring TACs jeopardise the vulnerable Western Baltic Spring Spawning herring for which scientists advised zero catches.