WRITTEN QUESTION E-0418/00

by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(23 February 2000)

Subject: Curtailing beam-trawl fishing owing to damage to the sea-bed environment

1. Is the Commission familiar with the article headlined Beam-trawl fishing damaging to North Sea environment published in de Volkskrant on 1 February 2000, in which the environmental impact of the beam-trawling method is described by Dr H. Lindeman, a researcher at the Institute for Maritime Research (NIOZ) commissioned by the Netherlands Ministry of Agriculture, Nature Conservation and Fisheries (LNV)?

2. Is the Commission aware that this fisheries technique, which is used mainly to catch sea-bed dwelling species like sole and plaice, involves the use of heavy iron bars and chains to in effect plough up the sea bed to a depth of 6 to 10 centimetres as a means of forcing those species into the nets.

3. Can the Commission confirm that in the Netherlands area of the North Sea alone, a minimum of 400 fisheries vessels, equipped with fishing gear ranging from 4 to 12 metres in width, are already using the beam-trawling method, and that not only the North Sea, on which fisheries countries like the Netherlands, Britain and the Scandinavian countries are dependent, but other waters as well are being damaged by this process?

4. Does the Commission agree that this fisheries method has a highly destructive impact on the sea bed and its biodiversity, not least because every living sea-bed organism is uprooted, and that beam-trawl fishing is currently wreaking at least as much havoc on the environment as, say, oil or gas borings?

5. What action will the Commission take to curtail the beam-trawling fisheries method and to provide the fisheries crews concerned with the opportunity to convert to other catching techniques or to other employment altogether?

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission

(30 March 2000)

1. The Commission is not familiar with the article published in de Volkskrant of 1 February 2000.

2. The Commission is fully aware of the nature of beam trawls, their target species, and the degree to which the seabed is penetrated by these fishing gears.

3. The Commission can confirm that a large number of beam trawlers work in the North Sea and elsewhere. It is doubtful, however, that all of these vessels work at any time simultaneously in the Netherlands area of the North Sea. A recent survey has indicated that, in the North Sea and even in the Netherlands area thereof, there are considerable areas which are not fished at all by beam trawlers.

4. The Commission is aware of the work of Dr H. Lindeboom (referred to in the question as Dr Lindeman), the author of the article referred to. Dr Lindeboom is an eminent scientist who has published a number of texts, both scientific and popular, in which he claims that beam trawling is damaging to the environment. However, other equally eminent scientists do not agree, either completely or at all, with Dr Lindeboom's conclusions.

5. The activities of beam trawlers are already curtailed by Community legislation. Large beam trawlers (greater than 221 Kilo Watt engine power) are not allowed to fish in the so-called plaice box which is an area of sea adjacent to the North Sea coasts of Belgium, Denmark, Germany, France, and Netherlands. Furthermore, large beam trawlers may not fish in the 12 mile zone around Ireland and United Kingdom. Beam trawling is prohibited in the Kattegat. At this stage, the Commission does not envisage any amendment to those restrictions. It will however continue to survey and evaluate biological impacts of fisheries, in order to propose further measures if and when appropriate.