Well-Managed: Effective Management and Improved Compliance
A sustainable and profitable sea fisheries industry must be well-managed, with effective communication and understanding between fisheries managers and regulators, catchers and processors. This will lead to policies and rules which are better understood and better reflect day to day reality. This in turn leads to high levels of compliance, to everyone's benefit. It also means good communication with those outside the sector about what is at stake. The action plan spells out how these goals can be brought about. Here, almost more than anywhere else, there is a role for all of us.
Two significant reforms to improve fisheries, governance were already underway when SeaFAR began its work - the creation of the Regional Advisory Councils under the EU's Common Fisheries Policy and the Inshore Fisheries Groups in Scotland. We endorse both and will help to make them a success.
This action plan builds on a new approach to enforcement. The introduction of the Registration of Buyers and Sellers has facilitated the tracing of almost all landings of fish and undeclared landings have now been reduced to negligible levels. The benefits are wide-ranging. It has reduced uncertainties in landings data so that science will be more in tune with catchers' experience; allowed prices to reflect more accurately supply and demand; and prepared the way for a risk-based approach where those that play by the rules will see tangible benefits, not least protection from the impact of the activities of those that don't. A key challenge now will be to reinforce this move to improved compliance by pressing on with moves to simplified and better regulation.
Central to a well managed seafood sector is open dialogue between the key players. For this to be productive and coherent it is important that there should be strong representative bodies, in particular in the catching and processing sectors, communicating effectively within and between their component parts. This plan contains important actions designed to promote effective communications in the sector as a whole. Achieving progress in this area will be particularly important in making a success of the implementation of this entire action plan.