Coronavirus could end overfishing in Europe, claims expert

Europe can end overfishing in its seas and restore its fisheries “forever” in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, an ocean scientist has urged.

Despite European politicians failing to limit catches in 2020 to sustainable levels, falls in demand from overseas markets and closures of restaurants at home in lockdown have hit the industry hard, leading to a large drop in fishing.

As a result, 2020 could be the first year when overfishing does not take place in European waters, according to Dr Rainer Froese, from the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research in Kiel, Germany.

Conservationists warn European ministers are under pressure from the fishing industry to provide compensation and allow increased catches next year to make up for the economic consequences of the crash in demand.

This fishing trawler is pictured in the harbour of Wremen in nothern Germany. Picture: Patrik Stollarz/AFP via Getty Images

But Dr Froese urged politicians to make the “right” decision and impose quotas for 2021 that protect fish stocks - as they are required to do under the law of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP).

Though the UK is leaving the CFP as part of Brexit and has pledged to manage its stocks sustainably, how fisheries are managed by the European Union will continue to have implications for Britain, as fish cross national boundaries. Under the reformed EU-wide policy, overfishing should end in 2020, with catches set at levels that allow fish stocks to replace their annual losses, so they are not in decline. But with ministers setting more generous quotas for the industry, 46 per cent of stocks 
are still overfished, Dr Froese said.

Fleets are not going out of port to catch fish in the face of the pandemic, which Dr Froese said could lead to catches that are 30-50 per cent less than the quotas allow, giving stocks a chance to rebound.

Allowing stocks to recover would ultimately deliver economic benefits because if the overall amount of fish in the sea is bigger, the amount that can be fished sustainably is also larger, he argues.

Hesaid: “While our ministers failed, coronavirus may come to the rescue, in a way, because demand has crashed. Fisheries will not fish out the too-high catches. And so actually, this could be the year where for the first time there is no overfishing in European waters.

“What does it mean for the future? Well, if you fish less then more fish remain in the water, and these fish will grow, and they will reproduce.

“So there will be more fish in the water, and the more fish there are, the higher the catches can be at a sustainable level.”

Normally, to allow stocks to recover, fishing has to be drastically reduced for a year or two, which EU ministers have shied away from, he said.

“What the ministers were too afraid of doing, now the virus has done for them.”