Common Fisheries Policy: rowing against the tide in terms of International law and Sustainable Development Goals

• Author: Armando Alvares Garcia Júnior
• Profession: Teaching and Research Staff. Universidad Internacional de La Rioja
• Pages: 143-161

143LOS DESAFÍOS DE LA PESCA SOSTENIBLE: DIAGNÓSTICO Y PROPUESTAS DESDE UNA ÓPTICA JURÍDICA

CHAPTER 6

Common Fisheries Policy: rowing against

the tide in terms of International law

and Sustainable Development Goals

ARMANDO ALVARES GARCIA JÚNIOR

Teaching and Research Staff.

Universidad Internacional de La Rioja.

SUMMARY: 1. Contextualiz ation of the problem. Initia ting the nightmare. 2. The Co mmon

Fisheries Policy. Cultivating t he habit of ineff‌iciency. 3. Aquaculture and the multiply ing pow-

er...of the dead; Aquaculture and t he power of multiplying the dead. 4 . Legal, illegal, deliberate,

accidental catch es...all against sustainability. 5. Conclusions. 6. Bibliography.

ABST RA CT: The sustainabilit y of f‌isheries requires a high level of awareness an d commit-

ment from all stakeholde rs. However, the Europe an Union has never managed to solve the

very serious pro blem of overf‌ishing and illegal f‌ishin g. Its regulations, modi f‌ied in various

reforms, have bee n incapable of rever sing the damage caused t o its own and other f‌i sh

stocks. With E uropean f‌ishing grounds depleted, ves sels regularly f‌ish in the maritime zones

of other countries, o ften withou t any authorizat ion from the coast al state or with f alsif‌ied

documentation. T he unparalleled voracit y of the European consumer for f‌ish is the reas on

why the West Coas t of the African continent is suf fering the unrelenting grabbing of it s f‌ish-

ery resourc es by European and C hinese industrial vess els. In the past, wit h indiscriminate

catches, thous ands of tons of carcasses of unwan ted creatures were discarded a nd thrown

back into the sea. No w, both the «accidental» catc hes and a good part of the de sired catches

are turned into f‌ishme al destined to feed the young in the f‌lourishing and in creasingly pow-

erful aquacultur e sector. Tons of wild f‌ish are turned into feed. Alt hough conceived to do the

opposite, today’s aquacult ure is making sustainable f‌isheries unviable. The pur pose of this

research is to highlight the r elationship between overf‌ishing , illegal f‌ishing and aquaculture

on the sustainability en visioned in the SDGs.

ARMANDO ALVARES GARCIA JÚNIOR

144

FRANCISCA FERNÁNDEZ PROL | COORDINADORA

1. CONTEXTUALIZATION OF THE PROBLEM.

INITIATING THE NIGHTMARE

is research sets out to debate the interplay between European Union

(EU) f‌isheries law and public international law, and thus the role it plays to-

wards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly 1, 2 and 14. As

will be seen, the results are dire. e aim of the research is to expose, in a raw

and unabashed way, how the implementation of the Common Fisheries Pol-

icy (CFP) continuously violates public international law and undermines the

achievement of the SDGs.

e EU is the world’s largest importer of f‌ish. Its CFP, created in 1970, aims

to ensure that we continue to consume more f‌ish than the world average (22.3

kilos per capita per year vs. 16 kilos), even though it is based on industrial f‌ishing

that is predatory for other parts of the world, especially the African continent.

e depletion of marine resources is a reality (e.g., the disappearance of

cod in the Newfoundland Banks due to overf‌ishing; 90% reduction of horse

mackerel in the South Pacif‌ic; 80% reduction of groupers in West Africa, etc.).

anks to technology and generous subsidies, we f‌ish two and a half times

more than is acceptable according to scientists.

e preservation of biodiversit y is important, as is the consumption of

seafood in many African countries during periods of drought, but their arti-

sanal f‌isheries, linked to food self-suf‌f‌iciency, are mortally wounded by Eu-

ropean industrial f‌ishing along the tropical waters of the African coasts. e

Sustainable Development Goals seek to mitigate overproduction and overcon-

sumption, but in some parts of the world, the exact opposite is true, due to

food insecurity and precariousness. For years the EU has been apathetic, not

to say conniving, when it comes to the adoption of a global treaty for the pro-

tection of marine biodiversity on the high seas, just where thousands of cargo

transfers take place between vessels with the aim of mi xing illegal catches with

legal ones in order to sell them quickly on the markets.

e CFP does nothing to prevent the predicted disappearance of the

most heavily f‌ished species by the middle of this century due to overf‌ishing or

pollution. is is a truly global challenge, especially as the disruption of the

food chain is already generating, for years, an overpopulation of toxic algae