GREENPEACE PRINCIPLES FOR ECOLOGICALLY RESPONSIBLE FISHERIES
PRELIMINARY DOCUMENT - FEBRUARY 1996
Note: These Principles are being distributed in preliminary form.
Greenpeace welcomes any comments or suggestions for improvement.
These should be sent to Biodiversity Campaign Coordinator,
Greenpeace International, Keizersgracht 176, 1016 DW Amsterdam, The
Netherlands.
I. Introduction - Oceans, Fish, and Fisheries Threatened
1. Humanity depends for its survival on the healthy functioning of
the planet's ecosystems. The oceans are the origin of life on earth
and are home to much of the earth's rich evolutionary heritage of
life forms and species.
2. Oceans provide many essential services such as regulating
climate and cycling nutrients. They are vital sources of food,
medicines and livelihood, and of cultural and spiritual values
which give meaning to human societies.
3. The oceans sustain us, but we are not sustaining them. The
diversity of life in the world's oceans is being
dramatically altered by the excessive exploitation of fish,
and other marine species. Most commercially targeted fish
populations and many associated marine species are in decline.
In addition, marine and coastal ecosystems, as well as habitats
vitally important for fish breeding and rearing, are being
rapidly degraded.
4. Not only is marine biodiversity at risk, but also the
millions of people who depend on the sea for food and livelihoods.
Industrial societies need to redefine their relationship with the
oceans. A swift and fundamental transition to ecologically
responsible, low impact fishing is urgently needed. Adjustments in
consumption patterns also are required.
5. Greenpeace supports ecologically responsible fishing. Indeed,
Greenpeace believes that the principles expressed here are
achievable and, that if they are applied, there will be enormous
benefits, both for the environment and fishing communities. But to
achieve this, sweeping institutional, social and economic reforms
are required. Ecologically safe fishing levels must be set in
a precautionary way that takes into account our incomplete
understanding about the workings of complex ecosystems.
6. Governments have the responsibility to act swiftly and
decisively on the design and implementation of programs for
the effective control and management of their fisheries.
The fishing, fish processing, and trading industries share in
this responsibility, and must demonstrate to the public that
they can act responsibly to protect marine biodiversity.
Processes established to achieve ecologically responsible fisheries
must, above all, be genuinely transparent to the public and
enable the full participation of public interest groups that
have a genuine interest in protecting the health and integrity of
marine ecosystems.
7. The complexity and scale of today's crisis in fisheries mean
there is no simple panacea. Each fishery has unique
characteristics related to the social, economic and political
context, the species fished, the nature of the exploited
environment, and the type of technology employed.
8. Thus, the Greenpeace Principles elaborate only the most
significant, general areas of reform, while more specific
measures must be tailored to meet each set of unique local,
national or regional conditions.
II. PRINCIPLES FOR ECOLOGICALLY RESPONSIBLE, LOW IMPACT FISHERIES
9. To minimise the risk of irreversible damage the intensity of
fishing should not substantially or permanently distort the
character of the ecosystem. To achieve this, target stocks should
be maintained at a high proportion of the biomass that would occur
in the absence of fishing.
10. As a rule, a fishery must not jeopardise the ability of any
species to withstand natural or human induced fluctuations in
the environment.
11. A fishery must not endanger any species or population, nor
inhibit the recovery of any that are depleted, threatened or
endangered.
12. The catch of non-target species or undersized fish
(bycatch) in fishing operations must be reduced to levels
approaching zero. Any remaining bycatch should not be
discarded, but instead brought to shore, unless it can be returned
to the sea alive and in a healthy condition.
13. The destructive impacts of a fishing activity on habitats
must be eliminated (e.g., damage to coral reefs, seagrass beds,
bottom substrate).
14. Wasteful forms of fish production, and fishing for wasteful
purposes, such as those which involve only a lethal harvest of roe,
must be eliminated.
15. Industrial reduction fisheries must be treated with particular
caution because of the potential for serious food web impacts
caused by removal of such large amounts of the marine biomass at
critical trophic levels.
16. Toxic, persistent, or bioaccumulative substances must not
be part of the production process. Compounds which are not
hazardous, should be either recycled, reused or reprocessed.
17. Total energy consumption of the product cycle, including
fisheries operations, transport, processing and distribution,
must be minimised.
18. CFCs, HCFCs, HFCs and other ozone depleting substances and
refrigerants, as well as substances that contribute to global
warming must be eliminated from the production cycle, wherever
alternatives exist.
19. Packaging must be minimised in the first instance, and should
be reusable or recyclable.
III. THE PRECAUTIONARY APPROACH
20. To compensate for humanity's enormous lack of understanding of
marine ecological processes, fishing must be based on the
Precautionary Approach. The overriding objective of the
Precautionary Approach is to conduct fisheries activities in a
manner that ensures a high level of probability that marine
species or ecosystems will not be seriously or irreversibly harmed.
This approach, among other things, shifts the burden of proof
onto those that seek to exploit marine ecosystems, and onto
those institutions responsible for fisheries management, to
demonstrate that there will be minimal risk of serious or
irreversible harm.
21. Our poor understanding of the marine environment demands that
the emphasis be on prevention of damage, rather than attempts to
repair mistakes through mitigation or restoration measures.
The precautionary approach, therefore, should apply at all times,
even when stocks are abundant. To apply the precautionary approach
only when fish stocks are low is a reactive response and the very
opposite of precaution.
22. No fishery shall be established or expanded until a
verifiable, scientifically based, dynamic management procedure
with clear objectives has been established. The performance of
such management procedures should be demonstrated, by
simulation or otherwise, to be capable of ensuring a high
probability of achievement of the objectives under a wide range
of alternative assumptions and scenarios about the dynamics of
the system.
23. No fishery shall be established or expanded in the absence of
reliable estimates of the minimum size of the target species
biomass. Where scientific data or other reliable forms of
information are inadequate to determine the likely impact of
fishing on the populations and the ecosystem of which they are
a part, fishing effort should be restricted to an extremely
low percentage of the lowest estimate of the unfished
biomass, pending proper analysis.
24. Before introducing any new fishing methods or gear types into
a fishery a scientifically based environmental impact assessment
must demonstrate that such methods or gear will have no damaging
impact on the target fish populations, other associated species, or
their habitats. Existing gear and methods should also be subject to
such assessments and damaging gears or methods should be phased
out. Where a new gear or method is intended to replace an existing
one as an interim measure, it must be shown to have a less damaging
effect.
25. In fisheries where overexploitation has severely reduced the
spawning stock biomass or substantially altered the ecosystem,
moratoria on fishing should be imposed to assist recovery.
26. Development of management procedures and supporting national
legislation that meet the above requirements must begin immediately
(1996) for all fisheries, with phased implementation over a
decade-long period, by which time they should be fully
operational worldwide. Some flexibility is envisaged for small
scale, traditionally managed fisheries which have been stable for
20 years or more.
27. The protection of the marine environment is integral to
effective fisheries conservation. Fisheries management should be
part of an integrated planning system for the regulation of all
human activities that impact the coastal zone or watershed (e.g.,
for the protection of anadramous species such as salmon). All human
activities which have the potential for significant adverse impact
on the conservation of fish stocks and marine biodiversity should
be subject to environmental impact assessments and any adverse
impacts must be minimised and eliminated.
28. Fisheries management concerns the management of fishers and
their activities, not the management of ecosystems. As such,
attempts to augment fisheries production must not include: the
culling of predator species; fisheries enhancement and sea
ranching (except in extreme cases ie. when a population is no
longer extant); the manipulation of the gene pool of wild species
and other forms of genetic 'engineering'.
29. In addition, Greenpeace has serious concerns about the
development of intensive aquaculture, particularly its promotion as
a means of meeting world food needs. A separate set of Greenpeace
principles have been drafted that are specific to aquaculture.
IV. SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC REFORMS FOR ECOLOGICALLY RESPONSIBLE
FISHERIES
30. Greenpeace seeks a substantial transformation from fisheries
production dominated by large-scale, intensive methods to
smaller-scale, community-based, fisheries using ecologically
safe, selective fishing technology and environmentally sound
practices. Greenpeace believes this transformation will result in
lower impact, more ecologically responsible fisheries that are
also socially, economically and culturally beneficial.
31. There should be a renewed emphasis on meeting essential
nutritional needs from fish production through reliance on regional
and local fisheries and the progressive conversion of
industrial reduction fisheries to provide substantially greater
quantities of fish protein for human consumption.
32. Every effort should be made to amalgamate scientifically
acquired forms of knowledge with traditional, locally acquired
knowledge systems. This approach will enable the development of
locally appropriate fisheries management regimes, fishing
technology and practices designed to meet the objectives of
a reformed, low impact fishing industry while, at the same
time, safeguarding the rights of traditionally dependent
fishing communities to basic food and livelihoods -- all
within environmental limits.
33.The optimum yield from any fishery should be defined as the
yield that maintains the long-term ecological viability of fished
systems and this must take precedence over short-term
financial considerations.
34. Within ecologically sound limits, fisheries must provide for
the essential needs of communities that have traditionally
depended on local fisheries for essential food and
livelihoods.
35. A nation's export of its fisheries production should not be
at the expense of the environment, or domestic consumption needs,
nor should it cause any significant adverse social or cultural
impacts for its coastal communities.
36. Access rights to fisheries must be consistent with the
cultural practices and economic needs of communities that have
historically depended on local fisheries and that have
consistently demonstrated the capacity to fish in a manner which
maintains the integrity of the ecosystem.
37. No new fishery should be started or an existing one expanded
until an environmental and social impact assessment proves it to be
socially acceptable to affected communities.
V. URGENT GOVERNMENT ACTION ON REFORMS Greenpeace advocates the
following governmental actions:
38. As virtually all major commercial fisheries today are being
fished at or beyond the limits of sustainability, fishing
capacity and overall effort must be drastically reduced.
39. Governments should adopt and implement the Precautionary
Approach to fisheries and related criteria for ecologically
responsible fisheries in national, regional and international
management regimes. They should also ensure sufficient funds
for research on marine environments, on fisheries impacts, and
on fishing gear selectivity.
40. Effective mechanisms must be established to regulate
the activities of both domestic and international fishing
vessels, their captains and observers, as well as to ensure
that states enter into and comply with
international fisheries conservation agreements and laws.
41. Particular emphasis must be placed on ensuring that in
Government efforts to address the problem of excess fishing
capacity, large scale industrial fishing fleets are not allowed to
move to areas of the world where their activities will be
detrimental to fish stocks, marine biodiversity and coastal
communities.
42. Governments must eliminate subsidies that underwrite
the expansion of fishing capacity, or the migration of their
fishing fleets to distant waters, and subsidies that are
detrimental to the long-term economic viability and social
well-being of fishworkers and community-based fisheries.
Governments should establish and fund compensation plans to help
fishers and fishworkers who become displaced by fishing
capacity reductions or who are affected by transitional programmes.
43. National government funding and inter-governmental lending
and assistance made available for fisheries development must
be redirected only to promote the development or maintenance
of ecologically responsible fisheries.
44. Taxation levels in the fishing industry should be adjusted to
reflect the level of environmental impacts resulting from
ecologically unsound practises.
45. Economic incentives aimed at protecting biological diversity
through the adoption of non-destructive, selective gear types
and the reduction of fishing capacity should be established to
complement precautionary management regimes.
46. In order to protect society's common natural heritage, access
to fishing and control of ocean areas should not be privatised. In
addition, fishing operations should be subject to liability
regimes requiring payment of compensation in respect of any
damages.
VI. URGENT MARKET ACTION ON REFORMS Greenpeace advocates the
following market-based actions:
47. The fish buying, processing and retailing industry should
use these principles as benchmarks when reviewing their
purchasing policies related to the production and marketing of
seafood products.
48. All levels of industry that profit from fisheries should
invest some part of their revenues into monitoring, enforcement,
smooth transition and conversion to environmentally sound
fishing technologies and practices, including compensation for
fishermen impacted by such recovery measures.
49. As consumers can only exercise their choice on the basis of
adequate information regarding the impact of their consumption, the
fish buying, processing and retailing industry must provide the
public with direct access to information. This can be done, for
example, through detailed product labelling or, where appropriate,
point-of-purchase and other forms of information directly
accessible by consumers.