Europe 1 with AFP 4:25 p.m., February 13, 2024

Only one in two fish landed in France is sustainably fished, far from the 100% sustainable fishing desired by Europe. A goal that seems difficult to achieve, when climate change affects even the best managed fish populations.

In 2022, 56% of the 347,000 tonnes of fish landed in France came from sustainably exploited populations, a figure slightly improving compared to 2021 (54% sustainable fishing), the French Research Institute for the Exploitation of Fish announced on Tuesday. the sea (Ifremer) in its annual report. The volumes of sustainably exploited fish, which were only 18% in 2000, have increased significantly over the last two decades, exceeding 50% in 2017 in France.

But this share of sustainable fishing has stagnated for five years, while the European Union had set itself an objective of 100% of populations fished at "maximum sustainable yield" (MSD) by 2020. The MSY designates the maximum quantity of fish that can be caught without jeopardizing the renewal of the resource in the long term.

Binding political decisions

"The RMD doesn't happen alone. It's always political decisions that are binding" on the world of fishing, pointed out Clara Ulrich, coordinator of fisheries expertise at Ifremer, during a conference. Press.

Today, 20% of landings therefore remain from overexploited fish populations and 2% from collapsed populations, such as Mediterranean hake, pollack from the Channel and North Sea or North Sea cod.

The rest of the volumes (22%) come from unclassified or unvalued stocks, due to lack of sufficient data. French fishermen catch 340 different species of fish, half of which are in very small quantities (less than 10 tonnes per year), making it difficult to assess their good management.

Larvae affected by climate change

The delay in achieving sustainable fishing objectives is all the more detrimental as certain fish populations, although managed sustainably, are nevertheless seeing their populations decline, undoubtedly because of global warming.

These include sole from the Bay of Biscay or herring from the North Sea, whose populations of young fish are decreasing significantly. “Recruitment of young fish is lower than would be expected in a healthy population,” said Ulrich.

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To explain this poor “recruitment”, Ifremer scientists showed that the hatching period of herring larvae was no longer synchronized with the blooms of zooplankton, their main source of food.

“For fishing to be sustainable, we must achieve the 100% objective but also maintain it,” remarked Ms. Ulrich. This requires taking into account “the impacts of climate change which bring greater uncertainty regarding the renewal of populations”, she added.

Overfishing in the Mediterranean

The situation is particularly bad in the Mediterranean Sea, where only 36.5% of the 18,000 tonnes of fish landed are sustainably fished. Conversely, the North Sea and the east of the Channel show the best performances, with more than 63% of seafood volumes coming from populations in good condition, thanks to good resources of herring and scallops. -Jacques.

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In the Bay of Biscay, the situation has deteriorated since 2010, when 44% of volumes came from populations in good condition, compared to 37% in 2022. Sardines, in particular, are overfished and degraded there. Conversely, the situation is slowly improving in the west of the Channel and in the Celtic Sea, with 50% of fish coming from populations in good condition in 2022, compared to 33% in 2010.

At the global level, sustainable fishing tends to decline, going from 90% in 1974 to 64.6% in 2019, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Agency (FAO). Around 80% of seafood products consumed in France are imported.