Ending Overfishing: the Setting of Total Allowable Catches for 2015

1. Ending Overfishing: the Setting of Total Allowable Catches for 2015 Melanie Gomes BirdWatch Ireland

2. Ending Overfishing: the Setting of Total Allowable Catches for 2015 • The situation now • What are the consequences of ignoring the scientific advice ecologically and economically? • The tools we have to implement change • Recommendations to the committee

3. The Situation Now

4. Biomass of table fish in 1900 Biomass of table fish in 1900 Christensen et al. 2003, Fish & Fisheries Slide from Professor Jeremy Jackson Scripps UCSB

5. and in 2000 and in 2000… Christensen et al. 2003, Fish & Fisheries Slide from Professor Jeremy Jackson Scripps UCSB

6. Current state of European stocks • Increase in overfished stocks from 39% to 41% in the NE Atlantic since last year. • Rate of overfishing has also increased. • In 2014 TACs were set at 35% above scientific advice (over 3 times that from 2012 - 11% above the advice). • Overfishing has led to reduced profitability of the sector with a rate of employment loss of 4 to 5% per annum.

7. Percentage of Fixed Quota Allocation per vessel of 117 vessels in N. Ireland

8. What are the consequences of ignoring the scientific advice ecologically and economically?

9. Ecosystem services from biodiversity Atmospheric gas assimilation & climate regulation Resilience Waste assimilation capacity & nutrient recycling Food provision and productivity Biodiversity for social & cultural values (e.g. marine tourism) “Marine biodiversity loss is increasingly impairing the ocean’s capacity to provide food, maintain water quality, and recover from perturbations”. Worm et al. (2006)

10. Overfishing • “Ecological extinction caused by overfishing precedes all other pervasive human disturbance to coastal ecosystems, including pollution, degradation of water quality, and anthropogenic climate change” (Jackson et al. 2001) • “Today, the synergistic effects of human impacts are laying the groundwork for a comparably great Anthropocene mass extinction in the oceans with unknown ecological and evolutionary consequences” (Jackson, 2008)

11. Photo: www.habitas.org.uk Dr Daniel Pauly UBC Fisheries Centre

12. Economic loss The New Economics Foundation published a report in 2013 which showed that: • Restoring 43 overfished European stocks to a biomass that supports their Maximum Sustainable Yeild (MSY) would deliver: • 3.5 million tonnes more fish landed each year • An additional £2.7 billion (€3.5 billion) in revenues each year • 100,000 new jobs (31% more in the EU fishing sector) Sunken Billions report (2008) stated that economic losses in marine fisheries resulting from poor management, inefficiencies, and overfishing add up to a staggering US$50 billion (€40 billion) per year

13. The tools we have to implement change

14. Legislation • Common Fisheries Policy – reformed and into force on the 1st January 2014 • According to Article 2(2) of the CFP, fishing opportunities must be set with the objective of progressively restoring and maintaining populations of fish stocks above biomass levels capable of producing MSY. • This needs to be achieved by 2015 where possible and progressively and incrementally for all stocks no later than 2020. • TAC decisions are set at the December Council – onus on the Minister to achieve the 2015 deadline.

15. Additional legislation • Additional marine protection requirements under EU environmental legislation: • The Habitats Directive • The Birds Directive • The Marine Strategy Framework Directive • Changes to management of fisheries activities may be necessary for Member States to meet these requirements • Article 11 of the reformed CFP outlines the processes for adopting conservation measures to meet these environmental requirements.

16. Marine reserves (NTZs) & their benefits • Increases of up to 100% of commercial scallops from the Isle of Man mobile gear closure of 2 km2 in 1989 as well as a greater abundance in upright seabed fauna that has been linked to increases in the collection of scallop spat (juvenile scallops). • Marine reserves can have a very positive effect on local tourism, for example, the 5.5 km2 Leigh Marine Reserve, in New Zealand, attracts over 100,000 visitors per year. This brings approximately NZ $20 million to the local economy each year.

17. Distribution of fishing effort around Georges Bank closed areas Source: Fogarty et al. (2007) Slide from Prof Steve Gaines

18. Lundy Island No Take Zone (NTZ) • Set up in 2003, the UKs first marine reserve or NTZ • Lundy NTZ allows stocks of commercial species to regenerate quickly. • There has been a significant increase in the abundance of lobster and crab inside the NTZ: over seven times as many. • More breeding lobsters are also found inside the protected area than outside. • Other studies report that lobsters and their larvae ‘spillover’ into surrounding waters, where it is permitted to catch them, which is beneficial to local fisheries. • Refs: Woottonet al. 2012; Hoskinet al. 2011.

19. Recommendations to Committee • Total Allowable Catches (TACs) must not exceed the scientific advice. - ICES advises a level of catch consistent with MSY - if the catches set by Fisheries Ministers exceed this, stocks will not recover and grow, ultimately hitting the fishing industry's bottom line. • TACs in line with scientific advice on MSY have to be set for all stocks by 2015, where possible, and by 2020 in any event. - Delays in achievement of this beyond this year's TAC decisions in December Council are only possible if the social and economic sustainability of the fleet is seriously jeopardised. • If the 2015 deadline is not achieved, evidence of this “serious jeopardy” must be provided, and TACs that do not exceed MSY advice must be implemented progressively and incrementally before 2020.

20. Recommendations to Committee contd. 4. Any increase in TAC for stocks subject to the discards ban (the landing obligation), must be subject to supporting evidence from ICES and limited in scope to ensure the total out-take will not jeopardise the CFP's MSY objectives.  5 We need to allow for both natural and anthropogenic (human induced) threats, unknown ecosystem interactions and mismanagement. - This is known as the Precautionary Approach – TACs should be even more precautionary when there is more uncertainty. 6. Ireland’s Marine Protected Area (MPA) network needs to be implemented as a matter of urgency.

21. Thank you Melanie Gomes BirdWatch Ireland