European Parliament rejects ban on deep-sea trawling

the Monde.fr | 10.12.2013 to 12h54 About Martine Valo

Trawling and the use of gillnets on the ocean floor - the two most destructive methods of fishing in the deep sea -, should they being forbidden?

To this question, which has generated intense lobbying efforts for months, MEPs, meeting in plenary session at Strasbourg Tuesday, December 10, finally answered no after a close vote, by 342 votes to 326. Ocean advocates hoped elected officials would go beyond the settlement compromise painstakingly negotiated in Parliament's fisheries committee in November. It was not the case.

The Parliament, because of disagreements within the European Socialists, stuck to this minimum regulation: the deep trawling, a practice which scrapes the marine grounds, damages corals, sponges, habitats of juvenile fish, will have to theavenir no longerextend et stay confined to areas already exploited. These new rules will also be accompanied by studies intended to map the most fragile funds.

A FILE THAT IS BURIED

The understood goes duty to get the accession of the European fisheries ministers who will being brought to pronounce in their turn. The folder tended to s'bogsince Maria Damanaki, European Commissioner responsible for this sector, proposed in July 2012 toprohibit deep trawling within two years. Note that it was not about Supprimer any form of fishing in the abyss: the use of longlines - less harmful to the marine environment - is not called into question.

Lire: Brussels fights to ban deep-sea fishing

On Monday, during a heated debate at the end of the day, the rapporteur for the resolution of the Fisheries Committee, the Greek socialist Kriton Arsenis, denounced the unwillingness of governments to protect the big funds. But in the opposite camp, several Breton, Spanish and Irish MPs intervened at the podium for defend the status quo. Their pleadings did not seem to be in vain.

Trawling and gillnet more than 200 meters below the surface - which constitutes the limit of deep-sea fishing according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization - represent 1,5% of catches in the Atlantic northeast. But this modest proportion is concentrated in a few ports - that of Lorient, in Morbihan in particular - whose economy would have been affected. 

Fishing for the 54 species defined as deep by the European Commission remains subject to quotas anyway. The main fish targeted by the professional fleets in the waters of theEuropean Union(blue ling, especially bream) go Carry on à being proposed on the stalls of the fishmongers. But maybe a little less.

Whatever elected officials think, public pressure is starting to being followed by effect. After CasinoThe group Carrefour comes fromannounce very aptly his intention toStopgradually to sell saber, pomegranate and tusk by June 2014.

http://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2013/12/03/les-supermarches-casino-ne-vendront-plus-de-poissons-des-grands-fonds_3524251_3244.html?xtmc=peche_profonde&xtcr=3

http://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2013/12/09/carrefour-va-bannir-la-commercialisation-des-poissons-des-grands-fonds_3528162_3244.html