Joint NGO response to the Commission consultation on the setting of fishing opportunities for 2025 under the CFP

This joint NGO response to the Commission’s consultation on the setting of fishing opportunities for 2025 was co-signed by ClientEarth, BirdLife Europe & Central Asia, Blue Marine Foundation, Danmarks Naturfredningsforening, Deutsche Umwelthilfe e.V., Ecologistas en Acción, FishSec, North Sea Foundation, Oceana, Sciaena and Seas At Risk. In this response, we jointly call on the Commission to propose fishing opportunities for 2025 in line with the requirements and objectives of the CFP, in order to restore and maintain fish populations above biomass levels capable of producing the maximum sustainable yield (MSY), while maximizing and safeguarding ecosystem health, resilience and productivity in the face of mounting pressures like climate change.

While most of the issues covered by this document have been previously raised, we more strongly emphasise the need to set truly precautionary and ecosystem-based fishing opportunities rather than as a default fully exploiting the available scientific single-stock advice. We make the following recommendations in order to ensure that all fishing opportunities, proposed and set for 2025, including Total Allowable Catches (TACs) and effort restrictions, meet the objectives of the CFP:

• Finally end overfishing and implement a new approach to TAC-setting that explicitly prioritises rebuilding fish populations, maximises ecosystem health and resilience, and applies the necessary precaution in the face of uncertainty in the ecosystem context;
• Take urgent and effective action to recover depleted fish populations and prioritise rebuilding when setting TACs, regardless of whether catches are taken primarily as “bycatch” or targeted, and whether they refer to data-limited or fully assessed fish populations;
• Fully implement the Western Mediterranean multiannual plan to ensure the swift recovery of all fish populations in the Western Mediterranean;
• Fully implement the CFP and underpin sustainable, precautionary and ecosystem-based fishing opportunities by proper implementation of the landing obligation, full catch accounting and a new approach to quota and fishing effort allocation that favors low impact fishing.

Since the CFP’s legal MSY deadline for ending overfishing by 2020 has passed, the fishing opportunities agreed this year for 2025 must respect this deadline, and the broader objective of maintaining and restoring all stocks above levels capable of producing MSY.

Related links:

Find other files produced or co-signed by ClientEarth related to the annual negotiations on fishing opportunities from 2015 onwards here.