Principles for Ecologically Responsible Fisheries

Principles for Ecologically Responsible Fisheries
Greenpeace International

CONTENTS

Introduction
Fisheries and Fisheries Management
The Precautionary Approach - Cornerstone of the Greenpeace Principles
Avoiding Adverse Social and Economic Impacts
Greenpeace Advocates Urgent Action on its Principles by Governments and Industry

Introduction

The world's oceans are under increasing threat from overfishing and excessive fishing pressure. Virtually 70% of the world's fisheries are characterized by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization as being fully-exploited, over-exploited, or depleted. Excessive fishing pressure is also placing many more marine species at risk -- marine mammals, seabirds, sharks and other key fish species in the intricate web of marine biodiversity that are caught and killed as 'bycatch', or threatened by the large-scale fisheries for species that are critical links in the marine food chain. In addition, marine and coastal ecosystems, including habitats vitally important for fish breeding and rearing, are being rapidly degraded. Furthermore, there has been an increasing flow of fish from southern countries' waters to the markets of Europe, North America and Japan, often at the expense of local, coastal communities and the food security of developing nations. While the complexity and scale of today's crisis in fisheries mean there is not simple panacea, Greenpeace has put forward a set of principles for ecologically responsible fisheries that elaborate the most significant, general areas of global fisheries reform.

Fisheries and Fisheries Management

The Greenpeace Principles advocate "low-impact fisheries", with the objective of fisheries management shifting from that of maximizing short term profits to minimizing environmental impacts, especially the risk of irreversible harm to fish stocks, marine wildlife and marine ecosystems. Reducing the intensity of fishing effort is paramount so that fish stocks can be maintained at much higher levels of abundance. No fishery should be allowed to jeopardize the ability of any species to withstand natural or human induced fluctuations in the environment, or inhibit the recovery of any species that may be threatened or endangered. The destructive impacts of fishing activities on marine habitats and ecosystems must also be eliminated, and fishing in ecologically sensitive areas should be prohibited.

The Greenpeace Principles call for an end to indiscriminate and wasteful forms of fishing, and seek the reduction and ultimate elimination of the catch of non-target species or undersized fish (bycatch). The culling of predator species or the fertilization of marine ecosystems is misguided and should not be permitted. Likewise the intentional release or unintentional spreading of alien species or genetically modified organisms must be prevented. Fisheries production and marketing processes generally must be conducted in accordance with "clean production" criteria.

The Precautionary Approach - Cornerstone of the Greenpeace Principles

To compensate for humanity's enormous lack of understanding of marine ecological processes, fisheries management must be precautionary, with emphasis on prevention of damage, as opposed to attempts to repair mistakes through mitigation or restoration measures. Environmental impact assessments are used to ensure that the harmful effects of all human activities (including fishing) that may damage the marine environment (including its watersheds) and marine biodiversity are eliminated. The overriding objective of the Precautionary Approach, which applies at all times even when stocks are abundant, is to ensure a high probability that marine species or ecosystems will not be seriously or irreversibly harmed by fishing. Precaution should increase with decreasing certainty of scientific data. Precaution also involves assessing the specific impacts of fisheries on the ecosystem as a whole, not just on the target species - known as the "ecosystem approach". Proposals to introduce any new fishing practice or gear type must be subjected to scientifically based environmental impact assessments to ensure no damaging impact on the target fish populations, other associated species or their habitats can occur. Under the Precautionary Approach, those who seek to exploit marine ecosystems bear the burden of proof to show that no serious or irreversible harm will occur.

Avoiding Adverse Social and Economic Impacts

Greenpeace seeks a substantial transformation from fisheries production dominated by large-scale, capital-intensive, destructive fishing methods to smaller scale, community-based, labor-intensive fisheries using ecologically responsible, selective fishing technology and environmentally sound practices. Fisheries must be prioritized to provide for essential nutritional and livelihood needs, particularly of those communities that are traditionally dependent on access to adjacent fisheries resources. The export of a nation's 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. Fishing done for wasteful purposes should be eliminated, including the indiscriminate capture and discarding of fish. Industrial reduction fisheries for fishmeal and oil production should be progressively transformed to fisheries for consumption by humans.

Access rights to fisheries must be consistent with the cultural practices and economic needs of communities that have historically depended on sustaining their local fisheries and every effort should be made to amalgamate scientifically acquired forms of knowledge concerning marine ecosystems with traditional, locally acquired knowledge systems. Environmental and social impacts assessments must be undertaken in response to any proposal for the introduction of a new fishery, new fishing practice or fishing gear type.

Greenpeace Advocates Urgent Action on its Principles by Governments and Industry

Greenpeace urges governments to immediately develop precautionary management procedures for low-impact, ecologically responsible fisheries. Urgent measures must be implemented to reduce fishing capacity and the deployed fishing effort to levels that are in balance with the limited fisheries resources - particularly in the sector of large-scale, industrialized fishing fleets. To achieve this, governments must eliminate all forms of subsidies and other aid that support expansion of fishing capacity, the over-capitalization or the migration of their fishing fleets to distant waters. Eco-taxation of the fishing industry should be instituted to reflect the level of environmental impacts, along with economic incentives to the industry to fish in an ecologically responsible way. All fishing operations should be subject to liability regimes in the event of any deliberately caused damages.

The fish trading, processing and retailing industry should use the Greenpeace Principles as benchmarks when review their production, purchasing and marketing policies. 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.

Finally, consumers must be able to exercise their choice on the basis of adequate information provided by the industry regarding the environmental and social impacts of their consumption. This should involve, for example, detailed product labeling or point-of-purchase and other forms of information directly accessible by consumers.