MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
European Parliament gets tough on fishing industry and conservation
The European Parliament voted Wednesday to reject most new subsidies for the saltwater fishing industry and provide financial support for new ecologically friendly measures meant to prevent overfishing. But in a nod to commercial fishing fleets, the lawmakers did maintain some handouts to the industry. Read full article
Comments
Disclaimer & comment rulesThis is ludicrous a total waste of money. Fishing should be the responsibility of National governments & straight away they can lop off all that money & get rid of tall those with their noses in the trough crawling around in their feathered nests.
Oct 25th, 2013 - 10:18 am - Link - Report abuse 0O, that it were so easy!
Oct 25th, 2013 - 01:18 pm - Link - Report abuse 0The seas of the world are now so grossly depleted that concerted actions are the only way to the survival of species across 4/5ths of the world surface.
Whilst I would wish that Maria Damanaki managed her Commissioner's activities to even better effect, I concede that she has been better than most of her predecessors.
“Europe’s fishing fleet is two or three times larger than is ecologically and economically sound, according to the European Commission.”
Oct 25th, 2013 - 02:42 pm - Link - Report abuse 0And we still have the Spaniards up in arms that they can no longer rape (pun intended) the seabed off of Gibraltar.
Decades ago, even as the Grand Banks fishery was destroyed by overfishing, Canada still had to remove Spaniards plundering what was left.
They seem to have no willingness to practice conservation.
I think being in the concrete block industry might be good for the next few years.
Oct 25th, 2013 - 02:57 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Nice jocularity, Chris.
Oct 25th, 2013 - 04:17 pm - Link - Report abuse 0However, much of the stock that still remains is pelagic, well above the 'concrete layer'.
..........
Troy - spot on!
“Many national and international fishery objectives focus on maintaining or increasing capture fishery production;
national policies would benefit from a greater focus on maximizing net benefits and choosing economic or social yield as an objective rather than continuing to manage fisheries with maximum sustainable yield as the objective.
Such a socio-economic focus implies that planners and decision makers should devote greater attention to reform of the pernicious incentive structures driving fisheries over-exploitation”
The Sunken Billions (World Bank and FAO, 2009)
5 Geoff
Oct 25th, 2013 - 05:54 pm - Link - Report abuse 0In other words, the current fisheries practices are UNSUSTAINABLE, and
the Spanish fishermen, amongst others I expect, are trying to get as much as they can for themselves while others perhaps try to conserve.
In the short term, some will reap more, but the industry and and fish stocks will inevitably be destroyed.
Is it insanity or just greed, that nations so dependent on the ocean as a major food source cannot agree to manage the resource and ensure food for the future?
#5 .. It's called 'The Tragedy of the Commons', (Hardin, 1968).
Oct 25th, 2013 - 07:00 pm - Link - Report abuse 0See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons#Modern_commons
Worth a close read;
in ecology it's one of the central theses of exploitation of 'common goods', being 'the depletion of a shared resource by individuals, acting independently and rationally according to each one's self-interest, despite their understanding that depleting the common resource is contrary to the group's long-term best interests.'
It has since been applied to economic theory, and stands alongside 'The Prisoners' Dilemma' as ways of trying to understand what the hell is going on in today's crazy world of macroeconomics.
Geoff
Oct 26th, 2013 - 03:08 am - Link - Report abuse 0Thanks, interesting read :-)
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