On the occasion of World Oceans Day, this Thursday, June 8, Didier Gascuel, Director of the Fisheries, Sea and Coastline Department at the Agro Institute in Rennes, and member of the Scientific Council for Fisheries of the European Union, returns to The Express on the state of our fish resources. The opportunity for the scientist to point the finger at the false discourse on sustainable fishing as well as the lack of effectiveness of marine protected areas.
Didier Gascuel : We must question what politicians and a certain number of professionals call “sustainable fishing”. Very often, their vision is not based on any ecological foundation. On the contrary, it is a very productivist approach. In other words, the notion of sustainability is based quite largely on a lie.
Thus, today, we accept as sustainable a situation in which the abundance of all exploited species has been divided by three compared to the past. If we reason species by species, the situation does not seem catastrophic because there are generally enough spawners in the water to ensure population renewal. On the other hand, at the ecosystem level, the situation is deteriorating. The latter become less productive, more chaotic, as imbalances between species are created.
I think so. With the rules we have adopted today, 30 to 40% of species continue to be overexploited in the Atlantic Ocean and it is worse in the Mediterranean. The fact that Ifremer’s experts have not observed any improvement over the past five years should alert us. We continue to put very strong pressure on fish stocks. We are also degrading the quality of the seabed and therefore the fertility of the oceans with trawling practices. If we add to this the effects of climate change, the situation is not good. A number of resources are already collapsing. One thinks of course of the cod from the North Sea, but the same goes for its cousin, the cod from the Celtic Sea, the sole from the Bay of Biscay or even the whiting. If we do not change our practices, we will continue to slide down this bad slope.
Indeed, simulations carried out on the North Sea show that if the mesh size of the nets increased from 100 to 140 mm, we could fish as much as today by doubling the quantity of fish present in the water! In Norway, fishermen have already put this idea into practice with very good results as cod stocks are recovering.
In the rest of Europe, however, old practices persist. To move forward, it would be necessary to agree fishermen who do not use the same gear and who do not have the same nationality. It seems very complicated. Trust with politicians is broken after years of liberal-inspired policies. Finally, the increase in mesh size translates in the first years into a reduction in catches, benefiting those who have not changed their practices. It is therefore necessary to plan and support this transition.
We have to organize it. These boats consume between 1 and 2 liters of diesel per kilo of fish caught. Not to mention the damage caused to the bottom of the water. We can’t go on like this. On certain activities such as lobster fishing, the transition can be done quickly. Countries like Iceland show that it is possible to use traps instead of trawls with very good profitability. Inspired by this example, France could decide to close 10% of its main langoustine fishing area – located in the south of Brittany – to trawlers and reserve it for trap practices.
In other places, we could play on the quotas by giving a little less to the trawlers and a little more to the others. All of this is being prepared. We must take into account the investments already made in the boats. But there are solutions. In the 1990s, the fishermen of the Paimpol district decided that trawler operating licenses would no longer be transferable. Over time, their owners went out of business. Today, these controversial boats have disappeared from the port.
I am extremely critical. France has created many MPAs but their level of protection remains very low. For example, on the Atlantic side, we observe more trawling in marine protected areas than outside! This does not mean that the boats are cheating. In reality, they fish completely legally because there is no text specifically prohibiting trawling in these areas. We are therefore faced with an aberrant situation.
In order to be able to proclaim loud and clear that France was going to protect 30% of its waters, we multiplied the MPAs without putting in place the appropriate regulations. However, the international texts clearly state that in an MPA, there must be no industrial activity. And according to the FAO, any boat over 12 m is considered an industrial activity. Today, it is planned to set up 10% of reinforced MPAs. But the texts under discussion do not define very clearly what this means. Will trawling be banned there in the future? It’s not sure yet.