Policy background of Scientific advice to fisheries management 183.73 Kb

The need for scientific advice on fishery management in the European Union is laid down in the Common fisheries policy  notably in the Council Regulation (EC) 2371/2002  that states that “given that many fish stocks continue to decline, the Common Fisheries Policy should be improved to ensure the long-term viability of the fisheries sector through sustainable exploitation of living aquatic resources based on sound scientific advice and on the precautionary approach, which is based on the same considerations as the precautionary principle referred to in Article174 of the Treaty”.

In a communication in 2003 on the improvement of scientific and technical advice on fisheries management the Commission further states that conservation and management measures should be based on scientific advice of high quality. The scientific advice should cover all relevant factors, and notably the interaction between fisheries, the resources and the ecosystem and should include biological, technical, environmental, economical and social factors. It should also respect the precision of the available analyses (i.e., be robust to and take account of uncertainty).

Advice should also be objective and impartial, prepared in accordance with the most recent accepted scientific methods, provided in a timely manner and be easily available and well explained. It should be formulated with respect to precautionary criteria.

Precautionary approach

The Precautionary Principle has been endorsed internationally on many occasions. At the Earth Summit meeting at Rio in 1992, World leaders agreed on the Agenda 21, which advocated the widespread application of the Precautionary Principle in the following terms:

'In order to protect the environment, the precautionary approach shall be widely applied by States according to their capabilities. Where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation.' (Principle 15)

The FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries for itself considers that States and subregional and regional fisheries management organizations should apply a precautionary approach widely to conservation, management and exploitation of living aquatic resources in order to protect them and preserve the aquatic environment, taking account of the best scientific evidence available. According to the FAO, the absence of adequate scientific information should not be used as a reason for postponing or failing to take measures to conserve target species, associated or dependent species and non-target species and their environment.

The precautionary approach has been integrated in the CFP through the regulation 2371/2002 that says that the sustainable exploitation of living aquatic resources should be based among others on the precautionary approach that is itself based on the precautionary principle referred to in the Article 174 of the European Union Treaty. Still, the Commission has further defined its approach to using the precautionary principle in the communication of the Commission on the Precautionary principle COM (2000) 1.

Following a request from the European Commission, the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) has developed a procedure for implementing a precautionary approach in its advice to the Commission on fish stocks and future catch levels. This is done by setting reference points - in effect trigger levels at which management action should be taken. ICES identify two types of reference points: 'limit' and 'precautionary'. The intention is that fish stocks are managed so they do not exceed the precautionary limit reference point. Fisheries managers can, therefore, be reasonably confident that limit reference points - at which there is a serious risk of stock collapse - are never reached.

Advisory bodies

The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES)

ICES is the prime source of advice on the marine ecosystem to governments and international regulatory bodies that manage the North Atlantic Ocean and adjacent seas.

Scientists from Member States collaborate to assess the state of many fish stocks in the north-east Atlantic and to provide fisheries advice through ICES. This organisation was constituted in 1902 to promote, coordinate and disseminate the results of research activities associated with the sea and its living resources. Following a number of international conventions, the role of ICES was extended to include the provision of advice on fish stocks and fisheries to three international fisheries commissions as well as to the European Community.

ICES is a forum for the national fishery laboratories of Member States and other States in the area to pool their resources when addressing common problems and to reach a consensus view on fisheries management advice. ICES has established a system of Working Groups and Advisory Committees, whose members are scientists of member countries. The Working Groups report to the Advisory Committees, which are responsible for formulating the advice.

The Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF)

The STECF was established in 1993 (Commission Decision No. 93/619/EC) and renewed in 2005 (Commission Decision No. 2005/629/EC);

The main objectives of the STEFC are

• To improve the quality of policy decisions and to speed up the decision-making process
• To provide rapid responses mechanisms to urgent political needs
• To promote the participation of researchers in the policy arena

Data collection

The scientific advice on fisheries management is based on data from the fisheries (Catches, logbooks, sampling the catches at sea (Discards) and at landing (length and age compositions). A specific Council regulation lays down the basis of the requirements of data collection and transfer by member States. This regulation details the type of information that needs to be collected and provided by the MS (volume of catch, prices, discards levels, income derivated from fishing activities, production costs, employment levels,…) as well as the frequency of their collection. The application rules of the regulation 1543/2000 are laid down in the Commission regulation (EC) No 1581/2004 of 27 August 2004. Still until recently advisory systems in EU fisheries were mostly focusing on the biological sciences and little quantitative advice was available about the social and economic impact of alternative management strategies, The systematic collection of economic fisheries data on a Community basis by Member States has only begun in 2004 (see the policy introduction to the section on socio economic research further in the document for more information).

Summaries

The summaries (Technical Leaflets) relating to long-term management and recovery plans include

• SAFMAMS
• EFIMAS
• COMMIT
• POORFISH
• IN-EX FISH
• BONUS

• Council Regulation (EC) 2371/2002. 20 December 2002 on the conservation and sustainable exploitation of fisheries resources under the Common Fisheries Policy.
• Council Regulation (EC) No 1543/2000 of 29 June 2000 establishing a Community framework for the collection and management of the data needed to conduct the common fisheries policy.
• FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries.
• Plan of Implementation, World Summit on Sustainable Development, Johannesburg 2002.
• Communication from the Commission on the Precautionary principle (COM (2000) 1).
• Communication from the Commission on Improving scientific and technical advice for Community fisheries management (2003/C47/06).
• http://www.jncc.gov.uk