Recommendations to the EU and the UK on the setting of fishing opportunities

The document argues that both the EU and UK consistently set Total Allowable Catches (TACs) above scientific advice, failing to meet legal deadlines for sustainable fishing. It highlights a systemic failure to prioritise the recovery of depleted stocks, often citing 'choke' risks in mixed fisheries as a justification. The briefing calls for a shift toward ecosystem-based management and a quota allocation system that rewards low-impact fishing practices over historical catch data.

• The EU and UK routinely set fishing opportunities that exceed scientific advice, leading to continued overfishing and a failure to meet legal sustainability deadlines.
• European fish populations are in a critical state, with a 2025 study indicating that in the greater North Sea area, only 28% of 50 stocks with available data complied with legal objectives for sustainable fishing pressure and MSY-capable biomass.
• Both the EU and UK have failed to achieve Good Environmental Status (GES) by the 2020 deadline, with commercial fishing identified as a primary human pressure preventing this goal.
• Decision-makers often justify overfishing by citing data gaps or the risk of 'choking' fisheries—where a depleted bycatch stock's low quota forces the closure of a fishery even if target stocks are abundant.
• A 2024 Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruling granted the Council some discretion regarding 'bycatch' stocks to avoid premature fishery closures, but it did not remove the obligation to restore all stocks to biomass levels capable of producing maximum sustainable yield (MSY).
• Current quota allocation in the EU and UK relies almost exclusively on historical catch data, which reinforces industrial fishing and harms small-scale, low-impact fishers.

APA

ClientEarth (2025). Recommendations to the EU and the UK on the setting of fishing opportunities. https://www.clientearth.org/media/k14bmhz4/joint-briefing-series-recommendations-on-fishing-opportunities-briefing-2-context-and-legal-framework.pdf

Chicago

ClientEarth. Recommendations to the EU and the UK on the setting of fishing opportunities. 2025. https://www.clientearth.org/media/k14bmhz4/joint-briefing-series-recommendations-on-fishing-opportunities-briefing-2-context-and-legal-framework.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=ClientEarth |title=Recommendations to the EU and the UK on the setting of fishing opportunities |date=July 2025 |url=https://www.clientearth.org/media/k14bmhz4/joint-briefing-series-recommendations-on-fishing-opportunities-briefing-2-context-and-legal-framework.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{clientearth2025recommendations, author = {{ClientEarth}}, title = {{Recommendations to the EU and the UK on the setting of fishing opportunities}}, institution = {ClientEarth}, year = {2025}, month = jul, url = {https://www.clientearth.org/media/k14bmhz4/joint-briefing-series-recommendations-on-fishing-opportunities-briefing-2-context-and-legal-framework.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }