29/07/2005 – The EU's
decision to help Morocco phase out its illegal
driftnet fleet, as a part of the new Fisheries
Partnership Agreements is a major step forward
in the move towards more sustainable agreements
and the fight against the use of driftnets
in the Mediterranean Sea. This should lead
to the end of driftnet fishing in the Mediterranean
Sea, urges WWF, the global conservation organization.
Under the new Agreement, a total of 119 EU
vessels (mostly Spanish) will be allowed to
fish in Moroccan waters in exchange for EU
compensation of 36 million euros per year.
A part of this amount will be earmarked for
measures specifically designed to fund the
conversion of its illegal driftnet fleet.
“This is a major progress in the promotion
of sustainable fisheries and environmental
protection in the Mediterranean, and should
be applied to all developing countries still
using driftnets in contravention with EC and
international law”, says Charlotte Mogensen,
Fisheries Policy Officer at WWF European Policy
Office. “It is essential that the buy-back
schemes applied to driftnet gear include provisions
for their physical destruction, to prevent
them being sold to other fleets in neighbouring
countries.”
Driftnets are an environmentally harmful
fishing gear consisting of a string of vertical
gillnets which drift with the current for
kilometres, thus causing incidental catches
of species not targeted by the fisheries activities.
Every year such practices kill thousands of
sharks and dolphins off the Moroccan coast
and in other areas of the Mediterranean. Morocco
harbours the bulk of the driftnet fleet in
the Mediterranean, but driftnets are still
being used by the Algerian, French, Italian
and Turkish fleet, despite of their complete
Mediterranean ban.
According to a study carried out in 2003
by WWF and the Moroccan association AZIR,
at least 177 fishing boats were using driftnets
up to 14 km long to target swordfish intended
for the European market. Such activities were
estimated to kill around 3,600 dolphins and
23,000 sharks per year in the Alboran Sea
alone (South-West Mediterranean). The fleet
based in Tangiers would additionally kill
13,000 dolphins and 77,000 sharks in the adjacent
Atlantic waters and the Straits of Gibraltar
area.
For several years WWF has been urging the
EU to monitor and prosecute the fleets of
its member states using driftnets and to help
Mediterranean countries put in place plans
to convert their driftnet fleets. The global
conservation organization believes the EU
has a responsibility on this issue because
it represents the main market for swordfish
caught by the illegal Moroccan driftnet fleet.
Notes to editors:
Driftnet fishing is illegal according to
several international conventions. Resolutions
44/225 and 46/215 adopted in 1989 and 1991
by the General Assembly of the United Nations
recommended a moratorium on all large-scale
driftnet fishing by 30 June 1992. In 1992
the European Community prohibited driftnets
fishing in the Mediterranean with nets longer
than 2.5 km. A total ban established by the
EU on driftnet fishing on large pelagic species
in the Mediterranean entered into force on
1st January 2002. The same decision was adopted
by ICCAT (International Convention for the
Conservation of Atlantic Tunas) with a binding
recommendation in November 2003.In November
2004 Moroccan authorities declared having
prepared a plan to gradually phase out driftnets.
The study “Driftnet fishing and biodiversity
conservation: the case study of the large
scale Moroccan driftnet fleet operating in
the Alboran Sea (SW Mediterranean)” was released
by WWF in 2003 and has been published recently
on “Biological Conservation”. The study is
available on request.
