This news piece represents the second of seven summaries of the essays written by participants of the FarFish course Marine Management and Innovation. Once a month we will publish an essay summary that will highlight interesting views and reflections. The intention behind this is to present interesting cases on marine management from around the world.

The monitoring of fishing activities and the fight against regulatory infringements aim to ensure sound enforcement of regulations. Member States, the Commission and fishing operators are all responsible for making sure compliance takes place. Member States that do not comply with these rules are punishable under the infringement procedure. Currently, the EU fisheries control system makes extensive use of modern technologies to ensure that fishing fleets are effectively monitored and controlled. The control system improves access to good quality fishing data and allows for crosschecking of information from different sources such as: Electronic data recording and transmission system (ERS), Vessel Monitoring System (VMS), Vessel Tracking System (VDS) and Automatic Identification System (AIS).

Currently, 31% of global fish stocks are overexploited, while 61% are exploited at maximum capacity. Overfishing represents one of the most serious threats to the sustainability of our seas and the species that populate them. A reason for this alarming state is the continuous use of unsustainable fishing practices, also called illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing. To deal with IUU fishing, monitoring, controlling and surveillance (MCS) is necessary. Article 15 of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) states that Member States shall ensure detailed and accurate documentation of all fishing trips and adequate means of verification, such as observers, closed-circuit television (CCTV) or other methodologies. In many fisheries around the world, the use of Remote Electronic Monitoring (REM) systems are being tested, and in some countries, REM systems are implemented as a tool for management of fisheries. A REM system acquires data and video footage using GPS, sensors, and CCTV cameras. REM data is used as an independent system for documenting fishing activities and catches. The system was developed as an alternative to human observers at sea to provide observation 24/7, while significantly decreasing costs.

The implementation of current EU fisheries control regime occurred before the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) reform, thus it is not entirely consistent with CFP. For this reason, amendments to regulation N.1224/2009, art.25 are now being proposed. Specifically, the proposal aims to: 1) remedy the shortcomings identified with respect to the CFP and other EU policies; 2) simplify the regulatory framework and reduce unnecessary administrative burdens; 3) improve availability, reliability and completeness of data and information on fishing, in particular catch data, and allow the exchange and sharing of information; and 4) eliminate obstacles that prevent the development of a culture of compliance with rules and fair treatment of operators between and within Member States.

There is a need for these amendments as there currently are struggles related to adequate control of the landing obligation (an obligation introduced in CFP). It is important that this obligation be imposed on all fishing vessels, regardless of size, tonnage and type of fishing, e.g. the absence of a reporting obligation regarding catches for fishing vessels below 10 meters in length has led to unreliable and incomplete data for this type of vessel.

A way to deal with this issue is to equip a specific percentage of fishing vessels with electronic surveillance control devices, such as CCTV cameras through use of the REM system. The CCTV system can be integrated with other electronic control devices (AIS, VMS, etc.) to obtain data. Through setting up fisheries control centres – whose function is to monitor fishing activities and fishing effort – Member States can utilize the REM system 24/7 without having to be on the vessel physically.

While this is an effective method, it is also important to consider the ethical side of such an intervention, which will more than likely limit the sense of freedom of the fishers and possibly violate the right to privacy. That is why video recordings should only cover the gear and parts of the vessel where the catch is processed, stored, and brought to land.

Overall, there is certainly no denying the need for the Member States to adopt and activate solutions aimed at ensuring effective controls of the landing obligation, even if – at least in the initial phase – it will only concern a small percentage of vessels.

Francesco Petta, a participant of the FarFish course Marine Management and innovation originally wrote the essay summarized here.

Photo: Shutterstock

On June 24th, FarFish initiated its one-year process on developing a European voluntary CEN standard for its good practice guidelines for developing management recommendations for the EU fleet operating outside European waters. Due to COVID-19, the kick-off meeting took place online on June 24^th and was attended by FarFish researchers, as well as several interested stakeholders that had signed up for the process. Participation in the CWA process is open to anyone interested, giving interested stakeholders an opportunity to follow the development of the guidelines, offer their feedback and provide inputs.

One of many FarFish project’s outputs is the development a European voluntary CEN standard that will be developed and approved as CEN Workshop Agreement (CWA)[1] in an open CEN process. The focus of this standard is to provide guidelines for the development of so-called Management Recommendations for the EU fleet operating outside EU waters, which have been in development in the FarFish project over the past three years. The aim of creating these guidelines is, firstly, to improve the cooperation between the EU distant water fleet fishing in the waters of a third State and the authorities involved, i.e. both regional and relevant EU authorities. Secondly, applying the framework suggested in these guidelines will improve data flow and transparency between the EU operators and the authorities.

Creating Management Recommendations means following a framework where the operators themselves are given new management responsibilities. They become directly involved in the management and decision-making process of the fishery in question, as they are given the responsibility to develop strategies to reach specific fisheries management objectives set by the relevant authorities. Such strategies are to contain a set of fisheries management measures that together will reach the authorities’ pre-defined objectives and will only be implemented given the authorities approval. A draft of the guidelines for making Management Recommendations has already been developed and tested within the FarFish project and will serve as basis for the standard.

The CEN process for developing the CWA standard is a one-year process. During this time, FarFish researchers will, in cooperation with the stakeholders that are voluntarily participating in the process, develop a final version of the guidelines through numerous physical and online meetings. Draft versions of the standard will be made publicly available for feedback during the course of its development, which will be announced on FarFish and CEN websites. Finally, to support the final version of the guidelines, FarFish will also develop an animated video demonstrating the Management Recommendation process, which will be made available on FarFish website and FarFish YouTube channel.

Anyone interested in taking part in this process can do so by registering at the CEN webpage.

[1] https://www.cen.eu/work/products/cwa/pages/default.aspx

Last week the third annual FarFish meeting was held on June 3rd – 4th. Due to Covid-19 the meeting took place online this year. The project coordinator, Jónas R. Viðarsson from Matís, Iceland, led the meeting with 49 attending, including projects partners and the external advisory group (EAG). Despite these unusual circumstances the meeting went well and without any major technical difficulties. The project has now been running for three years, which means that there is only one year left. Some interesting results are already in, which were shared at the meeting and will be presented here on this website very soon.

 

In this picture designed by the FarFish team the new SFPA (Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreement) is explained in numbers and compared to the old SFPA.

A meeting was held this week with FarFish partners in Victoria, Seychelles. The meeting was well attended by Case Study Leaders from the Seychelles Fishing Authority as well as tuna industry representatives and SFA staff. The FarFish work package leader on capacity development and dissemination and partners from the Long Distance Advisory Council and ICMAN-CSIC gave presentations about the progress of the FarFish project and next steps for cooperation.

The primary purpose of the meeting was to present, review, and discuss what has already been accomplished within the first stage of the Seychelles Case Study. The objectives of the Management Recommendations for Seychelles falls into two main themes related to sustainable tuna fisheries; namely, to improve data collection and to enhance monitoring, control and surveillance tools.

WP7 Leader Mary Frances Davidson and Deputy Director of the UNESCO-Fisheries Training Programme presented the status of the FarFish project so far with a focus on the Seychelles Case Study and reviewed some of the next steps for cooperation. Alexandre Rodriguez, Executive Secretary of the LDAC then presented the results from the first round of Management Recommendations, Outcome Targets, and Roadmap for 2020 and 2021 produced through the FarFish audit. Dr. Margarita Rincon of ICMAN-CSIC then demonstrated the Data Limited Methods Tool and the FarFish Database and described the various ways it can be used in situations where fisheries data may be scarce in the Indian Ocean.

The meeting concluded with a description of the capacity building opportunities available to SFA through the project, including participation in the advanced post-graduate training programme offered through UNESCO-FTP, a short course on Data Limited Methods which will take place in Mindelo, Cabo Verde in April, and the Tutor Web/Education in a Suitcase course, to be delivered in Seychelles later this year.