Opnunarræða á fundi EU MareFrame verkefnisins, 11. febrúar 2014

ATH: Talað orð gildir

Dear MareFrame participants and guests.


It gives me great pleasure to open your meeting today. Not only for the reason that this EU project is led by MATIS, the Icelandic food research Ltd but rather that  it is one more stepping stone towards responsible and sustainable fisheries – something that is at the heart of Iceland´s fishery policy. I understand that this project is a continuation or refinement of another large EU project, EcoFishMan that is in its final stage, also led by MATIS. 


Both of these projects, EcoFishMan and MareFrame are  supporting reform of the EU Common Fisheries Policy by incorporating "The ecosysystem approach to fisheries management" into the decision making processes.  Interestingly, this term was unknown to the fisheries world not so many years ago but is now a household term in the fisheries dictionary.  Its acronyms EAF or EAFM are now well known.    


In the old days fisheries management was not that complex. It was about  not overfishing the targeted fish stocks; are we over or under the Maximum Sustainable Yield threshold? Clear and simple. 


An important milestone towards the more holistic “ecosystem approach“ was laid at the FAO Reykjavik Conference on Responsible Fisheries in the Marine Ecosystem that took place  in 2001. It produced a stack of papers by prominent scientists  and a separate document called „ the Reykjavik Declaration on Responsible Fisheries in the Marine Econsystem“.  After being unanimously endorsed by the FAO Member countries it  was taken up at the Johannesburg Earth Summit in 2002 where world leaders made clear that they wanted  ecoystem considerations to be taken into account when deciding on harvesting strategies for fish stocks. 


But what does that mean?  


Broadly speaking taking into account the bigger picture of the marine ecosystem: Not overfishing target stocks, making sure that other marine life, including marine mammals and seabirds, is not deprived of food due to too heavy fishing of the species they feed on, protecting sensitive bottom areas etc. This of course sounds simple but  “the devil is in the detail“ and I am told that your new project is going to address some of those details by developing  “indidcators of Good Environmental Status“  and a “Decision Support Framework“ for management decisisions. This of course is good news as it will add new tool in the toolbox how to achieve responsible fisheries. 


BUT as we all know,  tools can be used or they can be left unused in the toolbox. That is where the politics come in.  


Two things I want to point out here:


First. Most fishing nations solemly state  that harvesting strategies should be based on the best available science. Yet we still see examples of parting with this very simple and easy to follow principle when short term economic interests are at stake. Belive me, scientific data can be hard to follow when the economic tide is against you. We politicians know all about that. 


Historically we Icelanders did learn our lession in that respect the hard way.  We now know that we will never achieve responsible and sustainable fisheries unless we are committed to the best scientific outcomes- however painful that can be in the middle of the political storm. As somebody put it so well: “Without data you are just another person with an opinion“. 


Second. The Icelandic fishing industry and the general public are committed to science based fisheries management. When the news broke in 2001 that now we needed an  Ecosystem Based Fisheries management on top of deciding the Maximum Sustainable Yields for the main fish stocks, many were sceptical and some still are. BUT by and large we can say that our  industry  has bought into this new approach when they realised that this represented a cautious and a balanced approach rather than something revolutionary. 


Finally, a few words on marine mammals.


The ecosystem approach to us means a balanced harvesting approach to all Marine Life, not just fish. To us excluding large marine stocks, such as marine mammals, from the equations is contrary to the very idea of an Ecosystem Approach.   In recent decades we have spent a lot of effort in the international arena to reach various agreements on how to make best use of the marine environment for food production. And these agreements invariabley make a firm commitment to Science and you could say Good Common Sense. 


Yet more and more governments give in to special interests. I want to name two examples.  Abandoning the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling from 1946 that had the purpose of securely harvesting whale populations based on solid science and the second, that the EU has banned sales of all seal products, including skin, seal oil and meat on the basis that seals are SENTIENT animals: In the dictionary sentient  means  “capable of feeling“. That of course demands the question: Are our other animals that we hunt or raise for food production such as pigs and cows not sentient animals? To me this is evidently nonsensical and leads us away from logic and common sense. 


As a matter of point: All talk about the Blue Economy being able to sove the food problems in the future involves  e.g making use of the lower tropic levels in the sea, the zooplankton that could be harvested in the billions of tons instead of the 85 million tonnes of fish that we are now harvesting from the sea. This, however, is not yet economically feasible except to make use of the most environmentally friendly red meat on the planet: Whale meat. Whales worldwide are consuming at least 249-434 millions of seafood every year, i.e. 3-5 times more than we humans take including fish that we catch for human consumption. 


We should think about these issues in light of the UN reports stating  that by the middle of the century humankind will need to produce some 70% more food than we do now and that food security is strongly linked to world peace. 


Finally, I wish you all success in excecuting this project and I look forward to see what new tools you will bring to the fisheries management toolkit. Even if we are on the right track, we always should strive for impovements. Enjoy your stay in Iceland.