French fisheries collective's call on World Fisheries Day
by Alain Le Sann
November 27,2020
| Source:
Collectif Pêche et Développement
| Alert Type(s): Samudra Exclusive
The Collectif Pêche et Développement (Fisheries and Development Collective), an association based in Lorient, France, that works to promote the sustainable development of the fishing and aquaculture sector, has issued a call to elected officials on the occasion of the 22nd World Fisheries Day (WFD), which was initiated on 21 November 1997 in New Delhi, India, in the presence of representatives of French artisanal fisheries.
In its call, headlined “Who wants the disappearance of fishworkers?”, the Collective is sounding the alarm bells, pointing out that for the past few months, worrying signs have been multiplying that indicate a desire, sometimes obvious, to eliminate fishermen or, very often, to marginalize them to make room for more lucrative Blue Economy activities. The European Union (EU), in its strategy for the Blue Economy, excludes fishing, a move that has been denounced by several organizations, including the Collective, during the November 2019 Joint Monitoring Programme. The EU has recently planned a considerable extension offshore wind turbine farms without properly addressing the problem of cohabitation with fishing over the thousands of sq km concerned (3% of European marine areas, mainly in coastal areas and, therefore, within highly frequented fishing zones).
In May 2019, a famous British journalist, George Monbiot of The Guardian, called out for the end of fishing, the only way, according to him, to protect the oceans, while the vegans described fishermen as murderers and celebrated the call to end fishing by March, which attracted good media coverage. At this very moment, the World Trade Organization (WTO) is preparing the end of debates on fisheries subsidies as part of its mandate, given by the United Nations (UN), for the implementation of Goal 14 of the Sustainable Development Goals on oceans. The representatives of artisanal fishers have never really been allowed to take part in these discussions, which will have a considerable impact on their activity.
In France, the Citizens' Convention for Climate proposed "to avoid fishing fish in their natural environment" and to replace it with sustainable aquaculture. Aquaculture, however, is an old sector that has already shown its limits. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is actively preparing its congress in Marseille, scheduled for January 2021, which will be largely devoted to the protection of the oceans by extending Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) to 30% of the oceans, including 10% in integral reserves. All of this will be reflected in the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in a valuation of ecosystem services: "The net benefits of protection of up to 30%, range from a minimum estimate of US$490 bn and 150,000 fulltime jobs in the management of MPAs to the most optimistic of US$920 bn and more than 180,000 jobs by 2050 ".
A reserve of 30% of the oceans is, therefore, clearly envisaged. It should be added that some scientists are calling for a ban on fishing in international waters, i.e., in 60% of the oceans. Fishermen's representatives have not been involved in these decisions. Since September of this year, the Sea Shepherd organization has been harassing fishermen day and night in the Bay of Biscay, denouncing a "dolphin massacre" based on a few videos of dead dolphins caught in nets. These images immediately led to a reaction from the European Commissioner for Fisheries in response to the request from environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs) for a four-month fishing ban in the Bay of Biscaye.
The impact of these images, out of their context, is devastating because today's society does not accept the death of cetaceans. A single photo of dolphins in tuna driftnets and a Greenpeace campaign in the 1990s quickly led to a UN decision to ban the use of driftnets, which affected all fishermen. With such images, Sea Shepherd is actually fighting for an end of all fishing and the organization will not stop harassing fishermen to put pressure on elected officials who feel unable to resist because of the emotion felt by the general public.
Already, after a few weeks of harassment, some fishermen have cracked, some have made inexcusable comments, while some, in the Bigouden country, have already decided to put their boats up for sale. The public is unaware that for a long time -- long before the Sea Shepherd campaign --- fishermen have been seeking solutions to the problem of dolphin and porpoise accidental captures. This type of research, with scientists, on repulsion devices is laborious, but there will always be a few catches that will be enough to mobilize opinion in favour of a ban on the fishery.
It is worrying to see how the European Commission rushes to react to ENGOs' injunctions when it knows full well that this problem has always been part of the realities of fishing and that common dolphins are not endangered as a species; its population is being estimated at 634,000 individuals in the North East Atlantic. Like seals, the more numerous they are, the more complicated coexistence becomes. Like the Collective, geographers, historians, economists and anthropologists, fishers' forums and some international NGOs denounce these abuses and disdain for fishermen. With the stranglehold of ENGOs over MPAs, we are witnessing at sea the same phenomenon as what the historian Guillaume Blanc denounces in his book "Green Colonialism" : land grabbing in Africa, particularly through the stranglehold of ENGOs on National Parks, which provides a pretext for the expulsion of indigenous peoples, considered incapable of managing their ecosystem.
However, the creation of reserves for more than a century has not been enough to solve the biodiversity crisis on land. This is how the marine world is evolving towards a “blue colonialism” which is shamelessly displayed, multiplying MPAs that ban fishing for livelihood through eminently sustainable practices for many oceanic peoples, and which, in Europe and elsewhere, rarely involves artisanal fishermen in decisions on the oceans, of which they have nevertheless been secular managers.
Our elected officials must react. In the face of this accumulation of threats to the very existence of fishing, the Collectif Pêche et Développement asks elected officials to commit themselves to :
-- Recognizing the collective capacity of fishermen to co-manage their resources and to protect the environment as long as their rights and responsibilities are recognized, as shown by the restoration of the red lobster stock.
-- Recognizing the need to fish to feed the population with healthy products (omega-3 fatty acids), and recognizing the low environmental impact of fisḥing, compared to farmed products.
-- Involving fishermen and their representatives at all levels of decision-making processes, from the local to the global level.
-- Recognizing the specificity of their culture and the wealth of their knowledge, which is essential for safeguarding the oceans.
-- Testifying to these commitments, on the occasion of each World Fisheries Day, all communities concerned with fishing and shellfish farming (municipalities, departments, regions) organize an event that reminds them that fishermen carry out an essential activity in difficult conditions for the good of all. May the State finally formalize this Day, as is the case in many countries around the world. Under these conditions, there will always be men and women ready to invest themselves in this fascinating profession and to face the risks of the sea. They will also be able to respond to society's expectations and continue their commitments towards sustainable fishing, based on FAO's Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication (SSF Guidelines) and its Good Practice Guidelines.
Theme(s): Others.
