Europêche has hit back at the Pew Charitable Trusts for ‘failing to respond’ to its accusation of misleading information carried in its March ‘Turning the Tide’ report.
In a further letter to Pew, Javier Garat, President of Europêche and Pim Vasser, President of EAPO, said: “It is disappointing that your response fails to address the issues that we have raised. We drew attention to the startling divergence between the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES) view and Pew's claims about fishing pressure and the state of the stocks off North Western Europe.”
Just last week an initial open letter to Pew, Europêche accused the report of making the assertion that fishing in pursuit of food and profit off North West Europe in recent decades has dramatically expanded.
It believes that on the contrary there has been a general decline in fishing mortality in the Northeast Atlantic and the Baltic Sea to levels consistent with Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY).
Europêche said it is not sure whether Pew is of the view that ICES science is wrong, or inadequate, or there has been a dramatic recovery in fish stocks since March. Worse, it questions the motive behind publishing what it calls such a ‘misleading report.’
World Fishing & Aquaculture has approached Pew for further comment.
