Mid-April a small delegation of the European Anglers Alliance (EAA), led by its President Fred Bloot, will meet with the EU Commission to discuss the implementation of the revised fisheries Control Regulation.
The regulation requires, among other things, that recreational fishers, who catches some specific species shall be registered in their home country and report their catches electronically. The list of species will be extended by 2030.
The required registration of (some of) the recreational fishers and (some of) their catches will help to establish a better picture of EU's recreational fishing sector. However, numbers of recreational fishers and their catches are only half of the data needed for our decision-makers!
The huge value side of recreational marine fishing - estimated 10.5 billion EUR - is missing.
The social and the socio-economic side of recreational fishing need to be substantiated and described regularly as well. Otherwise, our decision-makers and fisheries managers most likely will be making decisions, which will be detrimental to the recreational fishers and society for the wrong reasons.
More:
- New Fisheries Rules provide opportunities and challenges to further assert the role of EU recreational fisheries – EAA President explains.
https://www.eaa-europe.org/.../new-fisheries-rules...
- The Control Regulation can be downloaded here in multiple languages:
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=OJ:L_202302842
- Research for PECH Committee - Marine recreational and semi-subsistence fishing - its value and its impact on fish stocks
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/.../IPOL_STU(2017)601996
"Total economic impact of marine recreational fishing amounts to 10.5 billion euro, supporting almost 100,000 jobs."
The picture: Fred Bloot, EAA President
