Idag delades Kungsfenan Swedish seafood award ut vid ett seminarium på Göteborgsoperan. En av talarna var Roland Andersson (S), regionstyrelsens ordförande i Västra Götalandsregionen. Talet är på Engelska.
Sweden has the longest coast in the European Union, and on the west coast we have rich marine biodiversity. Traditionally our fishing industry brought many different fishes to the market.
In later years we have seen a clear trend of fewer species and also a smaller volume of the most common species. The most well known example is cod that used to be the food even the poor could afford but now is mostly found in the menus of gourmet restaurants.
There are probably many explanations for this development including environmental disturbances and possibly natural variations. But another reason is the fishing policy which allowed this to happen.
The fishing policy even encouraged the introduction of stronger ships and fishing-gear designed to maximise volumes. The result was catches that were much higher than the reproduction of fish through natural reproduction.
Today almost everybody would agree that the natural resource has been eroded. This historical development continued for at least three decades.
Even if the experts of the European Commission wanted to see more precaution and respect for natural reproduction rates as early as the beginning of the 1990s, the political pressure from large fishing states continued up until very recently.
Today even the Icelandic foreign minister is optimistic of the future of the European fishing policy. Iceland in many ways is a model of fishing management and therefore has quite a different from the record of the EU.
Today though, as Iceland wants to join the European Union, the government believes that the direction of EU fishing policy is something they can live with.
But are we able to restore life in the quiet sea? Although we have seen positive measures in the Skagerack and the Kattegatt for quite some time, I am not so sure. There seems to be a bigger picture that cannot be affected even if we pull the break now. But we have to do everything in our power to change direction. We owe that to our children and grandchildren.
There are some outstanding issues that must be solved before we can say that we have done everything to bring back life into the sea. We have to address the remaining problem of big by-catches and the following discards of fish.
Let me begin by looking at things in our own regional sea. Because of the poor and in some cases zero catches of whitefish today, the most important target species are Norwegian lobster, also called nephrops (havskräfta), and shrimps. These are well-managed species that help keep many fishing villages alive and that give a decent income for the remaining fishermen. There are even signs that there is a premium market for nephrops caught with sustainable and target-specific gears like cages.
Still, most of the nephrops and all the shrimp are caught with trawls and normally the trawls are responsible for sizeable by-catches of whitefish.
Along the coast only selective trawls are allowed but in the open sea and in Denmark the traditional trawls - which catch everything that comes in its way - are still used. The consequence of this is unacceptable by-catches. As the quotas for white fish are very low these by-catches cannot be brought to the market. Instead they are thrown back into the sea as so called discards.
The frequency of this practise is not entirely known but from some studies and also witnesses from fishermen we know that it has been considerable. We have even seen pictures of it on television and public was in an outrage as they saw large cod being hauled back into the sea.
The consequence is that the remaining stocks, the parents of the fish of tomorrow, have been caught and killed rather than being left alone to spawn and reproduce.
Since 8-10 years the problem is well-known. The Region of Västra Götaland arranged two seminars about the issue around 2004.
We believe by-catch and discards are the most pressing fishing-management problem of our regional sea. Nationally and even on the EU-level the problem has been given more attention. But still no real solution has been found.
As I see it, the solution can only be found in a general rule that only allows target specific gears, that make sure that only sustainable stocks are being fished in areas where there is a risk for by-catch and discards.
That would apply to most of the North Sea including the Skagerrak and Kattegatt, and it would involve many countries that fish in this sea.
In Sweden we have seen that these trawls are actually working, even if technological progress just started some 15 years ago.
Much more development work can still be done in order to make the selective trawls even more efficient in letting white-fish escape. For instance, we have to be absolutely sure that the fish that escapes is alive and well and also that the trawls can handle improving stocks of white-fish, and noit just the relatively small numbers that we see today.
But most importantly, there has to be a political will to introduce the selective gears, where you have a grid in the trawl as well as meshes allowing for the by-catch to escape. I would like to see countries like Denmark, the UK and the Dutch to follow in our footsteps.
I am sure that the selectivity approach will be met by doubts and scepticism as they were here when they were introduced. The best way to deal with that is to make the fishing industry party to development projects.
One very important reason that the fishing industry has been ecologically unsustainable is that there has been too little government effort in development work. All there has been are rules and regulations but very few positive examples of sustainable development.
But even if technology is available there is always a risk that the economic incentive to bypass, is stronger than the will to obey regulations.
If there is a market for by-catch there will be a supply of by-catch.
Therefore we have to accept controls that make sure that the only species that are caught are the target species.
I can understand that fishermen feel unease about such a development, especially if we are talking about small-scale fishermen that have difficulties in making ends meet. Therefore it is possible we have to move in the direction of larger units, at least for fishing taking place out in the open sea.
Hopefully this can be combined with small-scale fishing for shellfish along the coast. For me this is a scenario for the future. Efficient fishing without discards in the open sea and small-scale fishing on stable stocks along the coast.
We can already see how such fishing is being more integrated with coastal tourism, giving a sense of tradition and continuity for the visitors and a good local market for the fishermen.
My vision is that life can be brought back to the silent sea with such a development. Although I am an optimist I am far from sure; perhaps the destruction of fish stocks have gone too far for reproduction to be possible, perhaps climate change has made the return of coastal white-fish like cod less likely.
But we have to do everything we can. And politics have to show the way.