A resolution rendered ineffective and perhaps soon cancelled

Despite this democratic decision taken by IOTC members in February 2023 — which represented a first and very concrete step towards the recovery of overexploited tuna populations in the Indian Ocean and the protection of fragile marine ecosystems — the European Commission chose to align itself with the interests of a handful of French and Spanish tuna companies. The institution thus argued for an objection to this essential resolution, using a series of false arguments that we had already refuted in a previous report.(2) On 11 April 2023, the European Commission formally lodged its objection with the IOTC secretariat,(3) and three days later, France — which benefits from an additional seat on the IOTC thanks to its ‘Iles Éparses’ (a few small uninhabited islands in the Mozambique Channel) — lodged a similar objection.(4)

In doing so, the vast majority of vessels using these lethal devices in the Indian Ocean are now outside the scope of the IOTC resolution, since under IOTC governance, resolutions do not apply to objecting members. The Seychelles and Oman have also objected, so the resolution now applies to only five of the 47 French and Spanish-owned vessels operating in the Indian Ocean.(5) If Mauritius were to carry out its threat to object as well, only one vessel would remain affected.

Remedies needed to protect marine ecosystems

Faced with the omnipotence of industrial lobbies and their political intermediaries within the European Commission and the Council of the EU, BLOOM turns once again to justice, which has become almost the only remaining bulwark for citizens’ and ecologists’ associations against arbitrations that endanger, one after the other, the balance of the biosphere.

Through the two appeals filed by BLOOM, we ask the European Commission and France(6) to reconsider their decisions and to withdraw their objections to the necessary ban on FADs 72 days a year.

By defending by all means, including undemocratic methods, a handful of industrialists engaged in highly controversial and destructive fisheries, the EU is playing a dangerous game in the Indian Ocean and is fuelling deep-rooted anti-European resentment whose ramifications would go far beyond the simple question of fishing. Using development aid as a bargaining chip to obtain the lowering of the ecological requirements of the countries of the South is notably a devastating act for North-South trust and leaves little hope for the people on either side of the European and African continents on the ability of politicians to take the fair and courageous decisions that are needed at a time of biodiversity and climate collapse. If the European industrial fleets behave with such blatant ecological and neo-colonial brutality, how can we hope to improve the practices of other distant water fishing nations, such as China, Korea, Russia or Turkey?

The recent actions of the EU and France have shattered the myth of the exemplary nature of the industrial fleets that the European Commission would like to install. We are now counting on the proceedings initiated through this first act to force the EU to behave in a transparent and dignified manner.

MORE ABOUT FADs

European tuna vessels depend entirely on destructive FADs

Several particularly striking facts and figures demonstrate the weight of the European fleets in this ecocidal fishing practice:

• EU vessels currently account for about 95% of tuna catches officially made around FADs in the Indian Ocean;(7)
• IOTC data shows that 93% of yellowfin tuna and 99% of bigeye tuna — two species considered overfished since 2015(8) and 2022,(9) respectively — caught under FADs by EU vessels are juveniles and immature individuals that have not reproduced.(10) Yvon Riva — former Chair of the French tuna fishing union Orthongel — admits without batting an eyelid: “It is a statement that we regret, but it is the truth, there is no reason to deny it“, in response to a French journalist highlighting that French fishers “[are] fishing 10kg juvenile fish that have not reproduced, on a species that is overfished and overexploited”;(11)
• Up to 10% of FAD-related catches are non-target species, such as vulnerable and fragile species of sharks and turtles. Observers often report the capture of hundreds of sharks in a single fishing operation, almost all of which die before being thrown overboard;
• It is estimated that 60%(12) to 90%(13) of FADs are abandoned or lost at sea, eventually running aground, generating a massive source of marine pollution and posing a threat to marine life long after their use has ended.