RT Journal Article
T1 Public subsidies have supported the development of electric trawling in Europe
A1 Le Manach, Frédéric
A1 Bisiaux, Laetitia
A1 Villasante Larramendi, Carlos Sebastián
A1 Nouvian, Claire
AB In the 2000s, the Dutch beam trawl fleet was in chronic deficit and under pressure to reduce its environmental impact. Instead of converting to selective fishing gears,it successfully lobbied the European Commission with the support of public authorities and scientists to obtain derogations against formal scientific advice to practicea prohibited technique: electric trawling. Since then, electric trawling has expanded beyond regulatory threshold: 84 large trawlers now catch the vast majority of theDutch flatfish quota, causing detrimental socio-environmental impacts. To assess whether the European Union's fisheries policies fulfilled legal objectives andimplemented the 2030 Agenda, it appeared crucial to quantify how much public financial aid had been provided to the Dutch fishing sector for its conversion toelectric trawling. The financial information enabling this evaluation was first concealed but was eventually obtained. We show that the institutional opacitysurrounding electric trawling was not serendipitous and has served to dissimulate allocations of public monies to a prohibited fishing method (otter trawl), illegallicenses, and falsely ‘scientific’ fishing. In breach of EU laws, 20.8 million EUR of structural funds have so far been granted to this sector in the form of directsubsidies, i.e. over 30 times the amount acknowledged by the fishing industry. The findings presented here lift part of the veil surrounding electric trawling, but thecomplete reconstruction of the impacts of this fishing method can only be done when decision-makers and scientists disclose all data in full transparency and becomethe warrants of the public interest
PB Elsevier
SN 0308-597X
YR 2019
FD 2019-03-23
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10347/20900
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10347/20900
LA eng
NO Le Manach, F., Bisiaux, L., Villasante, S. and Nouvian, C., 2019. Public subsidies have supported the development of electric trawling in Europe. Marine Policy, 104, pp.225-231
DS Minerva
RD 23 abr 2026