Sustainable management for fisheries
Demand for seafood and advances in technology have led to fishing practices that are depleting fish and shellfish populations around the world. Scientists and researchers now fear that if current levels of exploitation continue we may soon witness the collapse of the world's fisheries; therefore, sustainable fishing practices must be employed without delay. To serve as a discussion platform, scientists, industry representatives and key stakeholders initiated the project SOCIOEC (Socio economic effects of management measures of the future CFP), whereby CFP stands for Common Fisheries Policy. The project took an objective look back at which practices did not work. Moving forward, the first step was to develop long-term objectives for fisheries management. These objectives needed to address ecological, economic and social sustainability targets set by EU directives. Implementation discussions were careful to include the responses of fishermen and industry partners to the proposals. Incentives for following the targets were argued in terms of direct and indirect effects. Conversations regarding the governance and assessing the impact of the changes were reviewed by all. Conclusions of this work included the possibility of the regionalisation of the CFP. In addition, a toolkit was developed for performing impact assessments on the first draft of the document. Although there are no final management measures, the results of the workshops and discussions clearly showed a great diversity among countries on regulations. SOCIOEC considered the impact of new management measures with regard to their ability to achieve both specific and general ecological objectives. It paid particular attention to the interpretation of overarching EU objectives in local and regional contexts, thereby bringing together the diverse needs of the EU community for positive change.
Keywords
Fisheries, sustainable fishing, SOCIOEC, Common Fisheries Policy, ecological
