Remaining Issues with the CFP Reform Rainer Froese, GEOMAR Breakfast Discussion with Fisheries Attachées 6th March 2013, WWF Office, Brussels

Four Trialogue Issues Reduce F to Fmsy by 2015 or by 2020 Reduce F below Fmsy after 2015 or target Fmsy indefinitely Rebuild B above Bmsy by 2020 or rebuild B at least to Bmsy without deadline No discard or 9-7% discard allowed

Four Terms Biomass (B) is the body-weight of all fish in the water MSY is the Maximum Sustainable Yield (= maximum catch) that can be taken from a population of fish (= stock) indefinitely Bmsy is the biomass that a fish stock must have, so that it can deliver the maximum sustainable yield MSY Fmsy is the fishing rate (the proportion of fish killed by fishing) resulting in Bmsy

Reduce F to Fmsy by 2015 or by 2020 F is the proportion of fish killed by fishing in a given year F = 0.4 means that 40% of the fish that were there on average during the year were caught If F <= Fmsy, stocks will gradually recover to Bmsy and catches will gradually approach MSY The lower F, the faster Bmsy is reached and the faster catches can approach MSY

Reality Check Of 38 stocks with available data in 2011, 21 (55%) were already below Fmsy 10 more stocks could reach Fmsy easily by 2015 Severe overfishing endangers remaining stocks

Reduce F to Fmsy by 2015 or by 2020 Setting TAC means setting F If stock size increases, a lower F means a higher TAC Economic analysis shows that profits over a period of 5-10 years are maximized if Bmsy is reached as fast as possible Froese & Quaas, Marine Ecology Progress Series, 2011

Reduce F below Fmsy after 2015 or target Fmsy indefinitely UNFSA (1995) makes it clear that Fmsy is not a target but a to-be-avoided limit reference point Only F below Fmsy results in B above Bmsy An in-depth analysis of European stocks suggested F = 90% Fmsy for regular fish (cod, plaice, whiting) and F = 75% Fmsy for forage fish such as sprat, herring and sandeel Froese et al., Fish and Fisheries, 2010

Rebuild B above Bmsy by 2020 or rebuild B at least to Bmsy without deadline So far, ICES does not provide estimates of Bmsy However, 2 * Bpa (or 2 * BmsyTrigger) can be used as proxy for Bmsy

Reality Check Of 39 stocks with available data in 2012 8 stock (21%) were already above Bmsy 21 (54%) more stocks could reach Bmsy easily before 2020 Remaining stocks are outside of safe biological limits, but can recover if fishing is temporarly halted or strongly reduced Froese and Quaas, Marine Policy, 2013

No discard or 9-7% discard allowed Discards are unwanted fish (= bycatch) caught and disposed dead at sea Bycatch is caused by the wrong gear operated at the wrong time and place Discards consist mainly of juveniles, i.e., the future adult target fish Discards also include perfectly good table fish that were unwanted at the time

No discards or 9-7% discards allowed Discards include collapsed stocks, preventing recovery Discards include threatened species and may cause local extinction Discards exert a strong negative impact on the ecosystem Fishers don‘t want bycatch, but accept it because discarding is cheap

No discards or 9-7% discards allowed In rebuilt abundant stocks, less fishing is needed for a certain catch Less fishing means less bycatch and discard In rebuilt abundant stocks, more selective gears can be deploid, thus avoiding discards A discard ban is a strong incentive to avoid bycatch

Questions?