Back in January, I welcomed emergency measures taken to protect sea bass during the crucial spawning season.
But the fact that we had to resort to reactive emergency measures also served as a reminder that we need real, long-term, preemptive, evidence-based policy-making for sea bass fishing.
That’s why, this week, the European Parliament voted in favour of a resolution, put forward by the Fisheries Committee on which I serve, which calls precisely for this. In particular, we asked the European Commission to draft a multiannual management plan for sea bass stocks, which Parliament could then adopt as soon as possible.
A multiannual management plan, using improved data on bass stocks, should provide more relevant mechanisms to safeguard the stock. Without such a plan, there would be a risk of having to resort to emergency measures each year — or worse, total stock collapse (which would kill the industry completely).
I’m happy to have supported this resolution and I’m now looking forward to working on the legislation that the European Commission will propose, so that we can finally have a long term solution for sea bass.
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