Pew Charitable Trusts has responded to Europêche’s accusation of misleading information in the ‘Turning the Tide’ report which was released in March.
In a new open letter, Uta Bellion, director of European marine programmes at Pew, invited Europêche to meet and discuss the data and how they can work together to bring an end to EU overfishing.
Kathryn Stack from Europêche, confirmed to World Fishing & Aquaculture that it would meet with Pew: “We are meeting with Pew in December with the aim of expressing our concerns over the inaccurate and misleading information that they publish in the media, as outlined in both our letters to their organisation.”
She added: “What we would like to know is that the science is there - clearly reporting positive results yet Pew continue to make claims to the contrary, intent on destroying out vulnerable sector. And we want to know why. Whether this will resolve the issue is not clear but there is always hope!”
To support its claim that fishing in pursuit of food and profit off North West Europe has dramatically expanded within recent decades, Pew said that the data cited by Europêche confirms that fishing pressure for non-pelagic fishers peaked in the 1990s and early 2000s.
It also said: “The report describes European fisheries over the course of centuries. It gives specific examples of expansions in fishing pressure and the capacity to catch fish in the latter half of the twentieth century (where firm data exists) and the negative impact this has had.”
“Several fisheries in north-west Europe only started in the second half of the 20th century, including for instance salmon in the Irish Sea or orange roughy and blue whiting in the north-east Atlantic.”
The letter also backs up three other statements which have been the subject of accusation from Europêche.
It supports its claims that calls by scientists and environmentalists to reduce fishing pressure have been ignored and that many fish stocks collapsed throughout the region. As well as its claim that the reformed CFP should prove a successful first step in restoring and maintain the health of the Common Fisheries Policy.
Ms Bellion concluded with: “The STECF’s resulting report shows overall levels of fishing mortality in the region have been and are above the levels the CFP requires. It is important to note that an observed reduction in fishing mortality in the 2000s does not nullify continued overfishing and that mortality is again on the rise.”
This all comes after Europêche released an initial open letter to Pew in mid-November accusing Pew of misleading information, this was followed up by another letter from Europêche who accused Pew of failing to respond.
