This week’s Ours to Protect looks at how EU regulation is changing in an attempt to improve compliance and traceability in the supply chain.
Journalist Sarah Coleman spoke to Green MEP Grace O’Sullivan during the October plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg to ask what these negotiations were hoping to achieve. Barry Andrews MEP also explained what this report has revealed about the traceability of fish sold in the EU, and how a new Outlaw Ocean investigation suggests that China is using forced labour in seafood processing factories which is then being exported to the United States and the European Union.
The Fianna Fail MEP has warned “This could have major implications for Irish retailers if seafood is making its way to supermarket shelves in Ireland,” and explained to Sarah what the investigation meant.
About Ireland’s fisheries…
- .As an EU member state, Ireland’s fishing policy is set by the Common Fisheries Policy. Adopted forty years ago in 1983, the Common Fisheries Policy was established to ensure sustainable exploitation of stocks. It has proven to be a contentious issue in Ireland throughout the years.
- Ireland owns approximately 12% of total EU waters. Existing rules allow foreign vessels to catch up to 85% of fish in Irish waters.
- In recent years, Irish fishermen dealt with further cuts in a post-Brexit trade deal between the United Kingdom and the European Union. Known as the Trade and Cooperation Agreement and coming into force in 2021, the deal obliges European vessels to progressively transfer to the UK part of their quota shares for certain fish stocks in the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea.
- For Ireland’s fishing industry, this means a 15% cut to its quotas by 2025, and a projected annual loss of €43 million, making Ireland one of the worst affected countries by this deal.
- Irish MEPs had their say on a recent deal in the EU to improve compliance and traceability in EU fishing.
The current situation with Ireland’s fisheries…
- The Irish Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) extends up to 200 nautical miles from the coastal baseline. It covers an area of 437,500km2 which is more than six times larger than Ireland’s land area.
- Ireland has special rights regarding the exploitation of marine resources inside its EEZ but this does not apply to the exploitation of shared fish stocks, which are managed under the EU Common Fisheries Policy and through annual negotiations with non-EU coastal states.
- Around €382M worth of quota species are caught in the Irish EEZ annually. Irish vessels catch around €250M worth of quota species annually; about half of these are caught inside the Irish EEZ.
- Profitability of the Irish fleet has decreased since 2020. Revenue decreased by -3%, amounting to €313 million These decreases were due in part to quota changes as a result of Brexit and increasing operating costs in 2021. Based on feedback from industry, increased prices for certain species, quota changes resulting from Brexit, inflation, and rising fuel costs were the main driving forces influencing the economic performance of the Irish fleet from 2021 to June 2023.
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