European Parliament Votes to Reform Fishing Policy

The European Parliament has approved a major reform of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) that aims to return fisheries “to sustainable stock levels” by 2020. According to a February 6, 2013, press release, the reforms will prevent member states “from setting quotas that are too high to be sustainable” and compel fishermen “to respect the ‘maximum sustainable yield’ (MSY), i.e., catch no more than a given stock can reproduce in a given year.” The revised CFP will also address how the industry treats “discards,” that is, “fish thrown back, usually because they are of an unwanted species or size,” by requiring fishing vessels “to land all catches in accordance with a schedule of specific dates for different fisheries, starting from 2014,” and by restricting landed catches of undersized fish “to uses other than human consumption.”

In addition, the European Parliament has agreed to take a long-term approach
to fishery management rather than engage in “yearly quota-haggling” with
member states and other governments. “We have shown today that the
European Parliament is anything but toothless,” said MEP Ulrike Rodust,
who serves on the Committee of Fisheries. “We have used our power as a
co-legislator, for the first time in fisheries policy, to put a stop to overfishing.
Fish stocks should recover by 2020, enabling us to take 15 million tonnes
more fish, and create 37,000 new jobs.”