I remember when I, some six or seven years ago, explained to a professor in marine biology that I was going to write a book on Swedish and European fisheries policy. His short, surprised laughter. His compassionate glance at me – the journalist with the impossible idea. And his comment: “Well, good luck. But you won´t make it. No one can understand fisheries policies. No one. It´s just too stupid and corrupt to be ever comprehended”.

This reaction of course made me even more determined to try and understand what was going on. How policies and so called “management” of fish stocks could have emptied Swedish seas of about 70 – 90 percent of its cod, eel, haddock, ling, sole and whiting in just a decade or two. But also I very soon had to admit to myself that maybe he was right – maybe I had gotten into too deep waters for my own capacity. First of all: interviewing people, and reading official documents, was practically impossible without a basic knowledge in fisheries biology and management issues. The vocabulary itself was the first obstacle.  What was the “resource” that everyone was talking about? (answer = the fish) What was the “spawning biomass”? (= adult fish) What were ” discards”? (= fish killed by dumping into the sea) And what was the TAC, the RAC and the EEZ? And the ICES advice and the MSY that was going to be reached by respecting Bpa, Fpa. Blim and introducing ITQ:s, abolishing IUU and reducing effort, especially in the demersal fishery?
It was not always crystal clear to me, to say the least. (You can have some help to dechifre the above by using the cfp-reformwatch glossary, though!)

Anyway, somehow, through hard work and good help I finally succeeded in my goal, and finished the book “Tyst hav” (meaning “Silent seas”, which has not yet been translated into English), a book that came out in 2007 and that eventually in 2009 got me into politics for the Swedish Green Party. Now I am in the European parliament as a member of Fisheries Committee, a committee that I actually have described in my book, and I am trying my best to be a constructive part of the upcoming reform of the CFP ( = the Common Fisheries Policy).

Now, why the need of a website such as this: the cfp-reformwatch.eu ?
The answer is quite simple: I believe that it is crucial to the reform of the CFP that as many stakeholders as possible (including scientists, consumers, ordinary citizens, students, fishermen and sport anglers) can follow in an open and transparent manner what is actually going on an EU level. Some may want to follow by reading documents, getting a knowledge on agendas on topics that are going to be discussed in parliament or in council, or will want to get into the play when they see what proposals are in the pipeline of the commission. Others may not use the cfp-reformwatch themselves but should anyway have the right to follow this extremely important process through the news media.

My biggest hope is in fact that this website can become the news hub of journalists that are in any way interested in environment issues, and of course particularly the seas. Because there is no doubt that the new CFP that will be implemented in 2012 will have huge impacts on the marine environment, world wide. The European Union is in fact the world’s largest fish import market. It is also the world’s second largest fishing power, after China. The EU fishing fleet operates all over the planet, and EU fisheries policies, in terms of import policies, subsidies or fisheries agreements with third countries, all have an enormous impact on the world’s oceans.

With that in mind it is really not encouraging to see the results of the CFP so far, in EU waters only. The EU Commission has stated in the so called Green Paper that 88 per cent of EU fish stocks are overfished,  that 93 per cent of the cod in the North Sea is fished before it has had been able to breed even once. We also know that species that are acutely threatened of extinction such as the European eel are still being fished, and that discarding (dumping) of fish is allowed and going on everywhere even though valuable fish dies for no use and that no one defends this practice. As a result: European catches are constantly going down, and eco-systems threaten to collapse. Now almost seven out of ten fish eaten in Europe are imported.

While this is a website financed by the European Greens, the primary intention is in fact not to promote Green policies, but to provide a platform of information for those who seek it.  At the bottom of the site we have a section which have the purpose of explaining everything you ever wanted to know about the EU institutions but were afraid to ask. At the top we will feed in the different agendas, with links to relevant documents, as well as we will provide calendars and “Don´t miss” -links, to news stories and new (and old!) interesting reports that can give background to news stories, or give inspiration to bigger thematic or investigative articles. Who has for instance seen a decent article on the connection between overfishing and co2 sequestration in the worlds oceans? Check out more on http://www.grida.no/publications/rr/blue-carbon/ where the recent FAO “Blue carbon report” shows that loss of healthy marine ecosystems is destroying the oceans ability to capture co2!

We will invite new experts, policy makers, politicians and different kinds of stakeholders to write opinion articles every three weeks, in order to have a lively and informed debate, and also to introduce some perhaps new faces and people to journalists that are always seeking comments on their stories.

With all this we hope to contribute to a lively and informed debate on the new fisheries policy that will be put in place in 2013. After seven years of hard research into the matter I can honestly tell you that I am now convinced that this is our chance. It´s practically now – or maybe never. If the ongoing trend that have emptied our oceans of certain fish should continue in the same pace and same direction as the last fifty years, scientists actually tell us the oceans will be empty one day. More precisely in 2048.

Time to turn the trends – right now!

Isabella Lövin, MEP

Brussels, 5th May, 2010.

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