Study on technical measures for the Baltic Sea presented to the European Parliament

The European Parliament has tasked us for the second time this year to conduct a study on Baltic Sea fisheries. This time, technical measures should be reviewed, assessed and categorised in "rules to maintain“, "rules to alter“, "rules to remove“ and „rules to develop“. Technical measures regulate e.g. the design of fishing gear, closed areas, or minimum sizes.

We argue that most of the present regulations could be removed, if few transparent new rules are sufficiently implemented which would create the right incentives for fishers to comply. A fair and comprehensive system of control, enforcement and monitoring appears to be pivotal to reach the objectives of the reformed EU common fisheries policy. The Baltic Sea seems to be an ideal place to test more progressive approaches, as its ecosystem and fisheries are comparatively simple in structure.

Presentation can be found here (Stepputtis’ presentation between 1:59 and 2:18 runtime).

The study can be downloaded here from the European Parliament’s website (pdf, 4.5 MB).