The sailors of the trawler -
Nicolas GUBERT / AFP
Ifremer is publishing its report this Friday on the state of the main fish populations caught by French vessels in 2019.
60% of the volumes landed that year in the ports of mainland France were from sustainably exploited populations, compared to 15% twenty years ago and 49% in 2018.
There is better, but we are still not at the objective of 100% sustainable fishing that the EU had set itself… for 2020. And 20% of the populations fished by French boats remain overfished.
Populations are even collapsing, such as hake in the Mediterranean.
How are the populations of fish caught at sea by French boats doing?
For three years now, the French Research Institute for the Exploitation of the Sea (Ifremer) has been publishing its assessment of the ecological status of the main species landed in French auctions the previous year at the start of the year.
160 populations are thus monitored in metropolitan France, "from which 80% of the fish landed each year come", indicates Alain Biseau, coordinator of fisheries expertise at Ifremer.
This Friday, the Institute is publishing its 2020 report on data for 2019, therefore before the Covid-19 health crisis [see box].
The numbers tend to be green.
60% of the volumes of fish caught by French boats, i.e. 400,000 tonnes in 2019, come from sustainably exploited populations, accounts Ifremer.
60% of French fishing sustainable?
In detail, out of these 60%, “47% come from populations considered to be in good condition, that is to say for which the biomass [the quantity of individuals, especially spawners] is good and the fishing pressure [ the quantity of fish caught] is deemed to comply with the maximum sustainable yield (MSY) * ”, explains Alain Biseau.
This category includes hake from the Bay of Biscay, the Celtic Sea and the North Sea, the Coquille Saint-Jacques de la Manche or the Baudroies from the Bay of Biscay and the Celtic Sea.
The remaining 13% come from so-called reconstructable populations.
"The fishing pressure is in line with the MSY, but the quantity of biomass is still considered too low", continues the biologist.
This is the case for Channel and North Sea sea bass or Mediterranean bluefin tuna, at worst at the end of the 2000s.
Ifremer describes an overall trend of improvement.
“Twenty years ago, only 15% of the volumes of fish landed came from sustainably exploited populations,” recalls the institute.
This share climbed to 49% in its 2019 report [on the 2018 fisheries therefore].
That is a progression of eleven points in one year.
"This is mainly due to the sardines from the Bay of Biscay, whose landings are very important and which changed from a status of" overfished "last year to" in good condition "this year", explains Alain Biseau.
/ Ifremer Infographics - / Ifremer Infographics
20% of species still overfished
There is nothing to rest on its laurels either.
Would this not be because the European Union had set itself the objective of reaching 100% of populations fished sustainably ... by 2020. We are still far from it.
If 60% of volumes come from sustainably exploited populations, this does not mean that the remaining 40% are not.
For several populations, the scientific community does not yet have enough information to classify and evaluate them.
All the same, Ifremer reports 20% of the volumes caught coming from overfished species.
14% come from populations whose biomass is considered good, but for which the fishing pressure is too high.
This is the case of the Celtic Sea haddock or the North Sea and East Channel whiting.
In addition, 4% come from populations in the red on the two indicators: their biomass is degraded and the fishing pressure too high.
This is the case of the Atlantic horse mackerel or the North Sea sole.
Worse, 2% come from populations estimated to have collapsed.
This is particularly the case with hake from the Mediterranean Sea.
"Its current biomass means that this population is no longer able to renew itself over the long term," points out Clara Ulrich, deputy director of Ifremer.
Especially since the hake reaches sexual maturity late, after three years.
In other words: the current pressure in the Mediterranean does not allow enough hake to reach reproductive age.
The Mediterranean as a black spot?
A symptomatic case of a poor overall state of fishery resources in the Mediterranean basin?
“We always have this very negative image of the state of populations in the Mediterranean,” begins Clara Ulrich.
Reality is more complex.
We are already monitoring fewer populations in the Mediterranean than in the Atlantic.
Only eight for France, which concern 40% of the volumes landed.
"
Of these, some are doing well.
This is the case, therefore, with bluefin tuna.
“After fifteen years of strict management plans, the population and the fishery [the vessels specializing in this fishery] are doing well,” recalls Clara Ulrich.
On the other hand, other populations are worrying.
Already last year, Ifremer warned of the sharp decrease in the size and weight of sardines and anchovies observed over the past ten years, as well as the early mortalities of these two species.
The first impacts of climate change?
In any case, this was the hypothesis raised by Ifremer.
/ Ifremer Infographics - / Ifremer Infographics
A plan to reduce fishing effort on hake
At the same time, the Institute points to “the pitfall of overfishing” in the Mediterranean, in particular for species that live in the seabed.
This is the case with hake, as we have said, but also with red mullet, "which resists a little better than the first because of its ability to reproduce faster", indicates Clara Ulrich.
But there are reasons for hope, continues the scientific director of Ifremer.
“For the first time, the EU has voted for a multiannual fisheries management plan for the western European Mediterranean [from southern Spain to the northern coast of Sicily],” she says.
It has been in effect since January 2020 and provides for a target of 30% reduction in hake fishing effort by 2025. ”This plan results in a reduction in the number of days of hake fishing authorized at sea by boat, but will also be accompanied by occasional closures of specific areas of the Mediterranean to specifically protect juveniles, hake that are not yet of reproductive age.
For Ifremer, this limitation is the most effective way to restore the population.
But it is still too early to measure the effects.
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* Maximum sustainable yield is the maximum quantity that can be extracted, on average and over a long period, from a population without affecting its reproductive process.
The Covid-19 crisis, a breath for the fish?
The Covid-19 health crisis and its waves of confinement have not spared French fishing.
Result?
“An overall drop in the intensity of fishing activity in 2020,” says Émilie Leblond, coordinator of the Fisheries Information System at Ifremer.
It draws this observation from the monitoring of activity throughout the year carried out by the Institute for French fishing vessels over twelve meters.
“Admittedly, these boats only represent 20% of the fleet on a French scale, but, on the other hand, nearly 60% of production,” explains Emilie Leblond.
This thus provides a fairly comprehensive idea of the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on the activity of the fishing sector.
"
This impact is not negligible.
"There is an overall drop of 10% in the intensity of activity in terms of volume and production reduced by 14% in terms of volume," continues Émilie Leblond.
This still represents one of the biggest drops in activity that French fishing has experienced in the last twenty years.
"
So hard for French fishermen.
Conversely, this drop in activity could benefit fish, by facilitating the regeneration of populations in 2020. "It is still too early to say so," says Alain Biseau.
Response in Ifremer 2021 report.
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