Our Job: To produce, Enhance, Monitor and Manage
A far too Sectoral Approach
The managers of our aquatic environments and certain NGOs whose main aim is the eradication of our small-scale estuarine and continental fishing communities sometimes have a far too sectoral approach to environmental management. This often leads to minimising the need to preserve the environmental sphere in comparison with developments in the economic and social spheres that structure the implementation of a sustainable development (SD) policy (see SD diagram in the sub-tab “for responsible fishing”).
The only stakeholders who objectively need aquatic ecosystems in good condition to ensure their future and subsistence are the small-scale continental and estuarine fishermen who have been claiming for ages the protection of these aquatic habitats and who want the application of the so-called “responsibility” principle. This implies that each use should minimise its ecological footprint. For professional fishing of sub-adult eels (as for glass eels), this has been done, as shown by the evolution of the number of professional fishermen since the implementation of the Eel Regulation 1100/2007.
For other uses, the situation is not satisfactory! The objectives of the framework directives concerning water, good ecological status and habitats: WFD (Water Framework Directive) and MSFD (Marine Strategy Framework Directive) and the Habitats Directive have not been achieved and these few examples referenced by numerous scientific publications illustrate perfectly the failure of this overly sectoral approach:
- In Brittany, 65% of the salt marshes at the bottom of bays and estuaries have disappeared permanently in less than 50 years;
- In the Loire, the damming of estuaries has caused the “boires” (hydraulic annexes) to shrink from 30,000 to 3000 hectares;
- In the Camargue, the surface area of wetlands fell from 67% in 1942 to 39% in 1984;
- Before 1846, the Seine estuary had a marshy surface area of 25,000 hectares, including 13,000 hectares of mudflats; today, due to urbanisation and industrialisation, only 3,000 hectares remain;
- 60% reduction in the area of water in the Dombes compared to that observed in the 18th century;
- Between 1973 and 1990, 52% of the wetlands in the Poitevin marshes were planted with crops, which represents 30% of the marshes;
- In Spain, almost 90% of the eel’s habitat was destroyed during the 20th century;
- The southern part of the Mediterranean Sea is also affected with the presence of numerous dams for crop irrigation or drinking water supply, some of which are placed at the mouths of wadis;
- On a European scale, the degradation of wetlands is significant and more important than in the USA.
It is a sad outcome that will only worsen in the context of climate change with the current policy of making professional fisheries an expiatory victim of the irresponsibility of some users of the natural environment.
Who is to be expected to believe that simply regulating fishing will revive an eel population whose fate depends primarily on the rational management of water resources? The needs of agriculture, tourism and the supply of drinking water in the countries of southern Europe, which are already under pressure, will come first and the disappearance of fishing communities will not solve the problem of eel conservation – quite the contrary.
Promotion and recognition of the fishing métier: a solution to the restoration and the wise management of the eel resource.
AFPMAR advocates, as do the professional maritime and river fishing organisations: CNPMEM and CONAPPED, the development of responsible fishing based on minimising the ecological footprint of the activity and the use of the knowledge and know-how not only of fishermen, but also of all the players in the sector.
While catching fish is a basic act of the professional fisherman’s profession, it is not an end in itself. Preserving the catch, making it available, selling it at the right price and adding value to it are all part of a series of procedures which, in the end, contribute to the gastronomic reputation of a maritime and continental territory.
Catching fish for pleasure is one thing, catching them to ensure the food security of a population is another, especially in ecosystems as diversified as those frequented by migratory fish such as eels.
Thus, marine, estuarine and inland fishermen have accumulated a large body of observations, knowledge and know-how on these ecosystems and on the behaviour of these migratory species.
Without their involvement, many research projects would not have been carried out to assess the size of migratory populations, including eels, on large rivers: Adour, Dordogne and Loire (estimation of glass-eel flows); Loire (estimation of silver eel flows) within the framework of the European INDICANG programme (Indicators of eel colonisation in the central part of its range) or tagging operations within the framework of the European EELIAD project (European Eels in the Atlantic: Assessment of their Decline).
This knowledge must be used to monitor, to help with management (their observations and reports are neglected in the management of this species), to assess the economic weakness of this sector (integration of the sector’s knowledge) and to carry out the future population transfers necessary for better use of the species’ potential habitats in a context of increasing scarcity of water resources and hindrance to the ecological continuity of its functional habitats, as it is practiced every year under the coordination of the ARA France association.
https://repeuplementanguille.fr/
Whistleblowers and Environmental Watch: a few examples among many.
The fishermen and inland fishermen to which our members belong have a long experience of observing and warning about the evolution of our aquatic environments and the species they host.
As early as 1984, when the recreational fishing authorities and our managers considered the eel to be a harmful species in first category waters (salmon waters) and accused it of all the evils, including that of feeding on salmon juveniles, professional fishermen sounded the alarm, together with a group of scientists, by drawing the attention of the public authorities to the decrease in eel resources and the destruction of its habitats.
This role of whistleblowers did not stop with eels. On a more global level, professional fishermen have denounced, within the framework of the World Fish Migration Day in 2020 and the IUCN World Congress in 2021, the overly sectoral vision of the management of our migratory fish, which, until now, has led to nothing when habitat degradation is not taken into account. The salmon of the River Loire, the shad of the Gironde and the Adour watersheds are edifying examples of this, and the convenient solution of restricting fishing without restoring habitats is showing all its environmental, social and economic limits.
Finally, in recent years, with the implementation of research programmes on the expansion of the wels catfish, professional fishermen have warned of the danger of biological imbalance and the endangerment of these migratory species: shad, salmon, sea trout, sea lamprey and eel, which these fish are fond of.
Participation in the recovery of European sturgeon populations in the Gironde basin. From 2007 to 2015, more than 1.8 million young sturgeon produced in fish farms have been released and fishermen participate in their activities to collect observations on their growth and dispersal in the natural environment.
Participation in the evaluation of the escapement of silver eels in the Loire basin through the implementation of sequential fisheries with the “guideau” gears; participation in eel tagging campaigns in the Loire and the Mediterranean Sea to observe the migratory behaviour of silver eels towards the Sargasso Sea; implementation of the eel restocking programme in France coordinated by ARA France: association bringing together the two professional fishing bodies: CNPMEM and CONAPPED; publication of good practice guides on the implementation of restocking and on glass-eel fishing in order to minimise post-fishing mortality.
Participation in the study of the behaviour of Atlantic salmon in the Adour and Gaves basin in order to better adapt fishing regulations to minimise the impact of estuary nets on this population.
This list is only an overview of the diversity of actions undertaken on environmental monitoring and cooperation with scientists.