Achieving Sustainable Fisheries Through Cfp Reform

This book takes a critical view of the policy and law governing EU marine fisheries and the effect of the 2013 reform of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). Reforms to the CFP are impeded by Treaty-guaranteed concessions, exemptions from general environmental legislation and the Court of Justice’s creation of principles unique to the sector. The author discusses how damaging effects of fishing could be ameliorated if the Court were to align fisheries principles with general principles of law, and considers the institutional and regulatory frameworks needed to encourage prudent resource use.

Written by Ernesto Penas of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, this thorough and comprehensive book provides a full understanding of the European Commission’s common fisheries policy (CFP), which is of major importance to all fisheries scientists and managers. Commencing with introductory chapters which look at the history behind the CFP, its birth and enlargement, this excellent book continues with chapters covering the major aspects of the CFP including policies on conservation, fishing fleets, structure, control, and environment, the external sector, scientific advice, stakeholders and decision making. Further chapters consider the Mediterranean Sea, aquaculture and the reforms of the CFP. A concluding chapter looks at what’s next for the CFP. The Common Fisheries Policy is an essential reference for all fisheries managers and fisheries scientists throughout the world, and provides a huge wealth of important information for fish biologists, conservation biologists, marine biologists, environmental scientists and ecologists in academia, governmental and non-governmental organizations and commercial operations. Libraries in all universities and research establishments where fisheries and/or biological sciences are studied and taught should have copies on their shelves.

The state of the Northeast Atlantic fisheries in recent years has highlighted - plementation as the Achilles heel of modern fisheries management: discards and unreported or misreported landings are in many cases recognised to effectively subvert sound conservation goals. Social science literature on fisheries mana- ment has tended to regard the implementation of resource conservation policies mainly as a question of effective enforcement. This literature regards surveillance and penalty as the key mechanism through which fishermen keep to catch restr- tions and loyally report their catches. This book emerged because several years of research on fishermen’s compliance had made us uneasy about this rather narrow approach to the problem of implementation. This uneasiness motivated us to widen the approach to the question of implementing conservation policies in the fisheries. Taking Norway as an example, its fishing fleet consists of some 7,000 vessels spread along a coastline of more than 20,000 km, populated by less than 5 million people. The idea of ensuring desirable behaviour through surveillance and - forcement alone is almost absurd in such a context, as the task is impossible by any reasonable means. The Norwegian implementation system has thus had to rely heavily on the incentives provided by the rules and legitimacy created through a century of state/industry collaboration. Different coastal states face very different conditions in terms of solving typical implementation problems such as discards and misreporting.

Among the fishes, a remarkably wide range of biological adaptations to diverse habitats has evolved. As well as living in the conventional habitats of lakes, ponds, rivers, rock pools and the open sea, fish have solved the problems of life in deserts, in the deep sea, in the cold antarctic, and in warm waters of high alkalinity or of low oxygen. Along with these adaptations, we find the most impressive specializations of morphology, physiology and behaviour. For example we can marvel at the high-speed swimming of the marlins, sailfish and warm-blooded tunas, air-breathing in catfish and lungfish, parental care in the mouth-brooding cichlids, and viviparity in many sharks and toothcarps. Moreover, fish are of considerable importance to the survival of the human species in the form of nutritious, delicious and diverse food. Rational exploitation and management of our global stocks of fishes must rely upon a detailed and precise insight of their biology. The Chapman & Hall Fish and Fisheries Series aims to present timely volumes reviewing important aspects of fish biology. Most volumes will be of interest to research workers in biology, zoology, ecology and physiology but an additional aim is for the books to be accessible to a wide spectrum of non-specialist readers ranging from undergraduates and postgraduates to those with an interest in industrial and commercial aspects of fish and fisheries.

In this report the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee concludes that radical reform is needed to ensure that the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) delivers for the fish, the fishermen, and the coastal communities that depend on them. The widespread desire to deliver a more local approach to fisheries management is hampered by the EU's exclusive competence over the conservation of marine resources under the CFP as only the EU can make rules regarding fisheries conservation. The Commission has baulked at repatriation of fishing policy through a full-scale Treaty change but the Committee highlights an alternative: this can be done by amending the CFP regulation itself. This approach would give Member States genuine freedom and responsibility and would set clear boundaries to the Commission' role. The Commission also wants to implement a discard ban on many commercial species starting in 2014, but the MPs question whether the proposal will prove effective. Instead, the Committee argues for a more gradual approach built on a sound science base and the local experience of fishermen to find workable solutions to the discard problem that has blighted European fisheries. The Committee also urges Defra not to abandon its commitment to domestic fisheries reform that delivers a fairer deal to small-scale fishermen. The Committee proposes a novel mechanism to reallocate unused fishing rights from 'slipper skippers' to active fishermen (a topic that was covered in an earlier report on the CFP and domestic fisheries management, sixth report of session 2010-12, HC 858, ISBN 9780215559944).

Offers a guide and provides an analysis of how a public European fisheries policy should be evaluated, implemented, and reformed Quo Vadis Common Fisheries Policy? is an essential book that provides an authoritative guide to the future challenges that face the public European fisheries policy. Written by a noted expert with 30 years’ experience in fisheries policies, the book provides the information needed to analyze how a public EU policy should be evaluated, implemented, and reformed. The book examines the difficulties of implementing the new policy including the application of the objectives of the 2013 policy reform. The author explores the myriad challenges that face the new policy due to global warming, pollution, and other global drivers. The book compares the new policy with other fisheries policy, particularly with the United States fisheries policy under the Magnusson-Stevens Act. The book offers an opportunity to address and discuss the challenges and obstacles that are not currently in the public domain. This important book: Provides a unique view from a noted expert and former policy insider Offers a critical analysis of a public EU policy from a pro-European standpoint. Gives a foundational resource to aid in the debate on the future of the Common Fisheries Policy Includes topics that go beyond EU’s policy and have implications for fisheries’ management around the world Written for administrations and stakeholders in the European and international fishing industry, Quo Vadis Common Fisheries Policy? addresses the challenges of EU’s new fisheries policy and offers a comparison of the US fisheries policy. The book helps foster much-needed debate about this topic.

This open access book provides a comprehensive examination of the European Landing Obligation policy from many relevant perspectives. It includes evaluations of its impacts at economical, socio-cultural, ecological and institutional levels. It also discusses the feasibility and benefits of several potential mitigation strategies. The book was timely published, exactly at the time where the Landing Obligation was planned to be fully implemented. This book is of significant interest to all stakeholders involved, but also to the general public of Europe and to other jurisdictions throughout the world that are also searching for ways to deal with by-catch and discard issues.

The Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) is one of the longest established and more controversial of the common policies of the EC. It deals principally with the management of fishery resources, relations between the EC and third States in fisheries matters, the marketing of and trade in fishery products, financial assistance to the fisheries sector, and aquaculture. However, the CFP is not just a matter for those with an economic interest in fisheries. It also raises many issues of more general concern, such as the capacity of the EC and its Member States to manage important natural resources sustainably, the impact of fishing on the wider marine environment, and relations between developed and developing States. This book addresses the CFP from a legal perspective. It provides a detailed account of the very large body of EC law comprising the CFP, and draws on the European Commission's associated documents to aid interpretation and add context. As a result, the book will be of value to anyone wanting knowledge of the law of the CFP. Although not addressing the Commission's 2009 Green Paper on reform of the CFP, the book should provide a useful reference point against which to view the reform of parts of the CFP that is anticipated to take place over the next few years.