Marine conservationists are planning to take legal action against the UK government for their choice to establish catch limits for fish populations that exceed the recommendations of scientific experts. They claim that this goes against the government’s own post-Brexit regulations.
In January, a legal dispute will begin, claiming that the government is unlawfully misusing a public resource and disregarding regulations intended to promote sustainable fishing practices.
Each year, the UK, EU, and Norway come together to discuss catch limits for jointly utilized commercial fish species for the upcoming year. They seek guidance from a separate scientific entity on what levels are considered sustainable. However, for the third consecutive year, officials have decided to exceed the recommended catch limits for at least half of the shared stocks. This has been deemed a detrimental practice by the Blue Marine Foundation, allowing for overfishing to continue.
The agreement reached by the UK, EU, and Norway for 2024 will provide fishing opportunities of 750,000 tonnes, valued at £970m, for the UK fleet.
The fisheries minister, Mark Spencer, stated that scientific guidance was used to establish agreements for 70 catch limits for fish populations in the North Sea and north-east Atlantic. This is in order to support a sustainable and profitable fishing industry. However, NGOs focused on conservation and environmental law have expressed criticism towards the involved nations’ ministers, citing concerns for severely depleted fish populations that are still at significant risk.
Charles Clover, one of the creators of Blue Marine, expressed concern over the repeated and insincere disregard of post-Brexit laws by Defra ministers. He questioned how much longer the British public, fishing industry, and Treasury will endure this behavior and called for someone to hold them accountable in the best interest of the nation.
Blue Marine has sent a letter to government officials stating that they will be requesting permission for a legal review of their decision on fishing opportunities for 2024, as long as it aligns with the government’s announcement on December 8, 2023.
The introduction of the Fisheries Act by the government marked the first domestic fisheries legislation in 40 years. The goal was to establish a top-tier management system that relies on the best scientific knowledge to maintain the health and sustainability of fish populations.
According to conservationists, the truth is not the same. In the initial year after Brexit, over 65% of catch limits exceeded the recommendations of independent scientists from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (Ices). In the following year, this number decreased to 57%.
Defra’s “provisional estimate” for this year shows that the same number of jointly managed stocks have been established in accordance with or below scientific recommendations, marking the third year since the implementation of the new system. These allocations include access to stocks that scientists believe should not be fished, such as two vulnerable species: Channel and Celtic Seas pollack and Irish sea sole.
In the previous year, the organization ClientEarth filed a lawsuit against EU officials regarding the 2022 catch quotas in the north-eastern Atlantic for fish populations shared between the EU and UK, as well as those in EU waters. The outcome of the case is yet to be determined.
A Defra spokesperson said: “Sustainability has been at the heart of the UK’s approach to support the viability of the UK fishing industry and catch limits have been set in line with obligations under the Fisheries Act 2020 and the Joint Fisheries Statement.
In these talks, we advocated for decisions to be made using the most reliable scientific information in order to safeguard important stocks, using data from Ices as our foundation.
A spokesperson for the European Commission emphasized the necessity of coming to a “balanced and responsible” agreement. They also mentioned that scientific advice, as well as socioeconomic and other evidence, was considered when determining catch levels. These levels were strictly limited to ensure the continued operation of fisheries.
Source: theguardian.com
