A 10-year Regional Action Plan to support small-scale fishermen has been adopted and signed today at the High Level Conference on sustainable small-scale fisheries in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea in Malta.
According to the European Parliament, the plan sets out to provide more opportunities and support small-scale fishermen with detailed measures to ensure a sustainable use of fish stocks, whilst restoring long-term economic and social prosperity for small-scale fishers and coastal communities.
The plan was signed by a number of Ministers from EU Member States including Karmenu Vella, Commissioner for the Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries. During a speech at the conference Vella said: “Small-scale fishermen are the backbone of the Mediterranean and Black Sea fisheries. They represent 84% of the fleet and 62% of fisheries jobs… When stocks dwindle and collapse, small-scale fishers are the first to suffer. When the vast bounty of the sea dries up, they are the ones who feel the pain.”
The action plan comes off the back of the MedFish4Ever Declaration which was adopted in March 2017 and the Sofia Declaration, adopted in June 2018. The Ministerial Declaration today extends Europe’s ambitions to enhance business and opportunity for small-scale fishermen, whilst ensuring a beneficial outcome for the environment by laying down a framework to translate the previous political commitments into a detailed regional plan.
What has the European Union already done for small-scale fishermen?
• Given small-scale fishermen a voice in local and regional decision-making processes, allowing fishermen to contribute an opinion to the way their industry is operating.
• The EU are currently revising control rules in a bid to implement more modern technology and equipment into the industry for simpler and more efficient control of their fleets and their catches.
• The EU are enlisting help from small-scales fisheries in cleaning up the sea from abandoned, lost or discarded fishing gear – the main factor behind this is encouraging fishermen and ports to report lost gear and remove it from the sea.
