A clear shift of power took place in the run up to 2009, as fishermen mobilised their allies with common sense and good data to influence annual stock management decisions by EU ministers, reports Peter O’Neill.
The EU Commission (EC) and scientists had proposed what some berated as the 'blunt' instrument closure of West of Scotland herring boxes. This could have knocked out cod, haddock and whiting catches and holed the nephrops’ industry.
The closure proposal was finally abandoned by ministers, a recognition that fishermen can be trusted to be selective and work for sustainable, local management.
By 'frontloading' (getting some stock decisions out of the way earlier in the year) this meant ministers had more time at their the pre-Christmas 18-19 December Council meeting. The usual chaos was reduced to a few late-night skirmishes. Fishermen boldly rejected an initial herring compromise, shot their doors again and pulled in a resounding catch. The value added was that more 'real' fishermen’s data, not just 'scientific' models, not only made it onto the agenda but won the argument.
The moral: small groups of fishermen are easy to bypass, but their allies in regional and pan-European parliaments cannot be ignored by the EC and Council. All fishermen across the EU can benefit from early tactical planning, backed by their year-round data collection. This maximises their frontline position compared with scientists’ occasional test catches and modelling.
Scottish fishermen were ready for action after scientists, in early November, proposed fishery closure whenever the herring biomass might drop below 50,000t (there were other permutations which can be seen in the Council report*).
The European Parliament (EP) fisheries’ committee responded with a clear “No” and with others advocated an intelligent strategy. The same week, the matter was formally put into the Scottish Parliament (SP). Its agriculture and fisheries’ committee was officially briefed about the closure danger and linked risk to the ₤50m Scottish nephrops’ industry. Official Scottish government research says “Scotland takes about one third of the total world Nephrops [sic] landings, and is allocated the majority of the North Sea and Scottish west coast Total Allowable Catches (TAC)”.
Scottish MEP Struan Stevenson wrote the first report for the EP fisheries committee. A month later on 4 December, its plain facts, against closure and for intelligent management, were swept along by a tidal wave of all Europe’s MEPs who voted 529 for, 49 against with nine abstentions.
The Euro currency of mediaeval Europe, a barrel of herring, was back.
The cod conundrum, and all discard management, remain works in progress. The EC/scientific bloc must maximise cod’s resurgence, not over focus on waste. Witness the cited 2006 research by Catchpole et al. - 'waste”' from the Scottish nephrops’ fishery provides 37 per cent of food for scavenger fish.
Scottish fishermen will get some funding for what will be a major, tough reorganisation of their catch operations but the SP said it will fast track the funding.
A more sophisticated management approach, led by the fishermen, has won the day.
* http://www.consilium.europa.eu/ueDocs/cms_Data/docs/pressData/en/agricult/104997.pdf
