In a world of giant trawlers and fish-farming operations, Gwenaël Pennarun still sets out most days from this Breton village to catch sea bass the old-fashioned way, with baited hooks.
It is a way of life, and work, that he hopes the European Union will continue to support, depending on a coming vote on its fishing policies.
Ms. [Maria] Damanaki and conservationists oppose financing new fishing boats and engines, saying that the goal should instead be to reduce the fleet and finance the new environmental policy.
They have been joined by 200 fishery scientists from around the world, who urged Parliament in an open letter “to move away from direct fleet subsidies,” and aim the money at “compliance with management rules, data collection, scientific research and stock assessments.”
Government-subsidized fishing is a worldwide concern for those who fear depletion of stocks. Rashid Sumaila, a scientist at the University of British Columbia who presented subsidies data to the European Parliament’s Fisheries Committee last week, estimates that the global industry receives about $35 billion a year in subsidies, of which the biggest portion — about 20 percent — is fuel aid that allows ships to go farther and stay out longer in search of fish.
Read the full article from The New York Times.