29 May 2009
The NFFO has written to the UK Fisheries Minister Hugh Irranca-Davies to reaffirm its opposition to effort control - and to reiterate its determination to secure its removal at the earliest opportunity.
The letter follows comments made by the Minister (FN 29th May) on the obstacles to reopening the EC cod recovery plan.
“Effort Control is an elaborate, costly but ultimately bankrupt approach to cod recovery”, said Davy Hill, Chairman of the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations. “It has been deployed because there is nothing else left in the Commission’s command and control armoury. Its primary advantage is that gives a superficial impression of dealing with the issue when the spotlight is on the Commission at the December Council”.
“In fact, an elementary understanding of economic behaviour suggests that restricting time at sea will intensify rather than reduce fishing pressure, at the same time that it increases the industry’s costs. As an industry we are suffering because the Commission hasn’t done its homework. A thorough impact assessment before the present cod recovery could have saved a great amount of heartache, along with a considerable amount of cod that is currently discarded as a result of the mismatch between abundance and the TAC.”
“Make no mistake – we are committed to cod recovery. The NFFO actively supports a range of cod avoidance measures all designed to minimise discards and speed recovery. These, in aggregate, and over time, will have a real positive impact. On the other hand, effort control at best is window dressing and at worst sets up perverse incentives that hamper and undermine cod recovery.
“Ongoing reductions in days at sea are not the way to mobilise the goodwill and industry commitment that, in my view, is a precondition for effective measures. We know there are those within the Commission that share this view but at present the diehards seem to still hold the whip hand. The forthcoming CFP reform will hopefully banish this tried and failed approach but in the meantime the Minister must do everything in his power to secure a change of direction”.
“We know that reopening the cod recovery plan will not be straightforward – for a start the Commission would have to acknowledge that its approach is fundamentally misguided, only a year after it was adopted. But the plain fact is that much more could be achieved in developing cod avoidance strategies if the yolk of effort control was lifted from our neck. And this volte face would be nothing compared to the changes suggested by the Commission itself in its CFP reform Green Paper.
“In every member state subject to days at sea constraint there is a mountain of evidence of the conservation and economic perversity of effort control. A case based on that evidence, put forward by a solid group of member states would create the political momentum for change. Our Minister should be leading that initiative”.