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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. Questions?