02 Apr 2008 - A decision
to allow trawl fishing close to the shoreline
in Greece risks endangering fragile marine
life on the coastal seabed.
A coalition of national conservation organizations,
including WWF Greece, is calling for the
immediate reversal of this decision.
The Greek Ministry for
Rural Development and Food agreed on March
5th to allow fishermen to use trawling gear
at a distance of only 1 nautical mile from
the coast, despite the European Regulation
currently in force across the Mediterranean
which forbids trawling any closer than 1.5
nautical miles from the seashore.
Trawling – a fishing
method whereby weighted nets are dragged
along the bottom of the sea – is renowned
for its destructive and indiscriminate nature.
“It is extremely disappointing
that the Greek government has taken this
decision without consulting stakeholders
– including fishermen, NGOs, scientists
– or carrying out a thorough environmental
impact assessment,” says Giorgos Paximadis,
Marine Officer at WWF Greece.
“We are demanding an
immediate reversal of this maverick decision,
for the health of our marine resources.”
Data from the Hellenic
Centre for Marine Research demonstrate that
trawling is the least selective of all fishing
gears, with an annual bycatch rate of some
44 per cent – and Greece’s Ministry for
Rural Development and Food itself acknowledges
that “most benthopelagic species are in
a state of relative overfishing or overfishing”,
in its National Operational Plan for Fisheries
2007-2013.
“Paving the way like
this for more indiscriminate destruction
of marine life should not be allowed,” adds
Paximadis. “But by reversing this decision
now it is possible to give a better chance
for the sustainability of our coasts, and
thus to give fishermen more security in
the long term.”
Notes to editor
* The coalition of Greek
conservation organizations requesting the
revocation of the Ministerial Decision consists
of: Archelon (Sea Turtle Protection Society),
Mediterranean SOS Network, M?m (Society
for the Study and Protection of the Monk
Seal), Pelagos Cetacean Research Institute,
Greenpeace, and WWF Greece.
* The European Regulation
currently in force is 1967/2006, concerning
management measures for the sustainable
exploitation of fishery resources in the
Mediterranean Sea. It provides a derogation
to the 1.5 nautical mile rule, if the fishing
method can be proven to have “no significant
impact on the marine environment” – for
which there is no scientific or environmental
data in this case.
* Bycatch is the capture
of non-target species (and discarded juveniles
of target species) in fishing gear. For
more information, see: www.panda.org/bycatch
Giorgos Paximadis, WWF Greece
