Dutch-Norwegian Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture Conference Report
3 June 2010 - Bergen, Norway
Introductions to Norwegian and Dutch Fisheries and Aquaculture policies:
The policy objective in Norway is to establish a sound basis for an economically viable development of the fisheries industry. Johan H. Williams, Director General of the department of Marine Resources and Coastal Management, stated that a sustainable management of the living marine resources is pre-conditional. Also the fisheries sector should contribute to good employment and living opportunities in the coastal communities, through marked orientation and increased value adding. The main elements of Norwegian fisheries management are: exploitation strategy (harvest strategies, annual TAC), exploitation pattern (technical regulations), distribution of quotas (different vessel groups) and vessel regulation (quotas, licenses/permits). Issues vary from illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing (IUU), to discard ban to protection of vulnerable marine environment (VME).
Aquaculture in Norway has grown significantly in Norway over the past 20 years and therefore there is a need for a strategy for environmental sustainable aquaculture. The strategy identifies five focus areas, where aquaculture has potential impact on the environment: genetic interaction, pollution, diseases, spatial planning, feed resources. Environmental sustainability is a prerequisite for long-term development and growth of the Aquaculture in Norway.
Due to decreases in quota, increasing fuel costs and public criticism of fishing methods and catches in the years 2000-2007 there doesn’t seem to be a sustainable future anymore for the traditional flatfish fisheries with the conventional beam trawler. Unless fishermen choose for innovation and cooperation said mr. Albert Vermuë, Director of Fisheries, Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality in his presentation. Therefore since 2007 the Netherlands have developed a structured policy to drive innovation of the North Sea fisheries sector forward. The policy consists of 3 pillars:
1. the activities of the Fisheries Innovation Platform
2. the activities of fishermen in a structure of study groups
3. the support of the European Fisheries Fund
Since then, the innovation climate in the North Sea fisheries has been changing, and progress is being made in sustainability and profitability.
Key note speakers:
Kjell Nedreaas
Martin Scholten
Karin Kroon-Boxaspen
“Good management practice stands and falls with good information from the fishery. The Norwegian Reference Fleet is a good example how to collect more data: crew members are trained to conduct self-sampling. The Reference Fleet has proved itself to be a useful data collection platform for many purposes and also contributes to better trust and understanding between fishermen and scientists”
“Fishing with care gives a future’. How to fish with care can be explained with a four leaf clover. The first leaf stands for nature based fishing, or fishing with Respect. Secondly the sector should fish efficiently instead of effectively. CPUE based fishing will lead to a fisheries that is more in Control. Thirdly fishing should be keen and clean by innovations and developing new techniques, this is Cautious fishing. The fourth leave is for good luck and explains that Smart fishing has to be based on good information.”
“Norwegian Aquaculture is a vital industry that has had a steady increase in production over the years. It is of vital importance to Norway that this production is done within the limits that the environment can tolerate and that we are able to assess the effects on not only local scale but the ecosystem as a whole. One of the main problems in salmon aquaculture is the parasitic salmon lice.The challenge for the management of the growing aquaculture is to provide the necessary knowledge and find the correct indicators for effect. Also we should be more geographically specific: what is ”true” in one place is not ”true” in other places.”
1. The ecosystem approach to fisheries is the only way to achieve a sustainable fisheries and aquaculture
| Agree | Disagree | |
|---|---|---|
| Before | 75% | 25% |
| After | 75% | 25% |
| ‘Sustainable fisheries is plural. In other words, fish in an ecosystem always interact and therefore, with management these interactions should be taken into account.’ ‘There is a need for better demarcation of the approach and this is a process where stakeholders, including scientist should work on in close cooperation.’ | ‘Ecosystem approach is to ambitious and it seems that the ecosystem approach is just a playground for scientists. Also, the question was raised: how can we work with an approach that is not even defined?’ |
2. Fishermen are the future managers of the Sea
| Agree | Disagree | |
|---|---|---|
| Before | 25% | 75% |
| After | 40% | 60% |
| ‘Fishermen should get much more responsibility and take the lead in management of the fish resources. Scientists can back the fishermen up.’ | ‘ First of all, there is a conflict of interest for fishermen. Also there is more to the Sea than fisheries alone and there are to many players in the field’ |
3. Discarding of fish should not be allowed with the ecosystem approach
| Agree | Disagree | |
|---|---|---|
| Before | 70% | 30% |
| After | 50% | 50% |
| ‘The discards ban is the only way to make fishermen creative and invest in measures to reduce discards’ | ‘Complete ban of discards is to absolute, as it is almost impossible to bring the amount of discards down to zero completely. Transparency and knowledge on discards is important so the proper measures can be taken to reduce discards to a minimum’ |
4. The aquaculture industry is producing beyond the limits that the environment can tolerate
| Agree | Disagree | |
|---|---|---|
| Before | 15% | 85% |
| After | 15% | 85% |
| ‘On the global scale there are (too) many examples where mismanagement of Aquaculture has lead to ‘local’ disasters: like virus outbreak in Chilean Salmon farms and ecological impacts of prawn farms in Asia.’ | ‘There is still room for Aquaculture to grow, however only with proper management. Boundaries have to be defined by management and implementation should be very strict.’ |
5. Marine protected areas are an essential management tool for sustainable fisheries
| Agree | Disagree | |
|---|---|---|
| Before | 25% | 75% |
| After | 40% | 60% |
| ‘The society asks for MPA and protection of the Sea, we cannot get around it anymore.’ | ‘Although MPA’s have a function, they do not always benefit fisheries. Pelagic stocks for example do not benefit from MPAs.’ |
6. Bottom trawling is a threat for the environment and should be banned
| Agree | Disagree | |
|---|---|---|
| Before | 15% | 85% |
| After | 15% | 85% |
| ‘Bottom trawling is an old fashion way of fishing that has been unchanged for 100 years’ | ‘Bottom trawling has been used for years and there is still fish in the sea.’ ‘New techniques are certainly being developed in the Netherlands, with minimal ploughing’ |
7. Sustainability can only be reached if we raise consumer awareness.
| Agree | Disagree | |
|---|---|---|
| Before | 15% | 85% |
| After | 30% | 70% |
| ‘The consumer needs to be informed better and labels like the MSC can help consumers to make a well considered choice.’ | ‘Consumers can be manipulated easily and make choices based on the price. For more sustainable fish in the shops, retailers should take more responsibility.’ |
8. Stronger co-operation between scientists, stakeholders and government both nationally and internationally leads to better policies and management
| Agree | Disagree |
|---|---|
| 100% | 0% |
| ‘Sustainable management of fisheries and aquaculture is a shared responsibility of all stakeholders. This debate is a good example on how different countries can learn from each others approaches on the international level’ |
