As Nature went to press, the European Parliament was voting on how billions of euros in subsidies should be allocated to the fishing industry. In past years, the main focus has been on ‘capacity building’ — the strengthening and support of fishing fleets. But now, after years of worries about overfishing and damage to the marine environment, calls are growing among scientists for more spending on sustainability and conservation.
Ahead of the vote, a campaign by researchers has challenged MEPs to amend the funding legislation so that subsidies instead go to better management and research, such as assessments of how many fish are in the seas, the setting up of marine reserves and basic oceanographic studies. More than 180 researchers have signed a letter urging MEPs to support this measure.
Rashid Sumaila, director of the Fisheries Economics Research Unit at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, was one of the organizers of the letter and the lead author of a report submitted to Parliament last week. In it, he and his colleagues estimate that about $35 billion is spent on subsidies globally each year, with capacity-enhancing subsidies making up more than $20 billion of that (see go.nature.com/yxpfe2 and ‘Net spend’). Sumaila and his colleagues want an end to payments that increase the ability of fishing fleets to catch fish, including those that cut fuel costs and fund the modernization of boats.
Read the full article from Nature News.