Seminar: Sustainable fisheries management and recreational sea fisheries - socio-economic value, data collection and data use in EU and US management

The term ‘recreational fisheries’ covers a number of sub-segments but the focus of the seminar will be mainly on recreational angling. At EU level recreational angling, and the other recreational fisheries segments, seem only of interest if a ‘shared stock’ - fished by both commercial and recreational fishers - is in trouble. Little interest has been shown by EU legislators for the sector’s needs, its huge value or its development potential - the expenditure per sea angler annually is estimated 1,000 EUR, or 8-10 billion EUR in total. Effectively, recreational fishing is managed as a residual of commercial fisheries, and not in its own right for the best of recreational anglers and the businesses and livelihoods, who depend on anglers’ expenditures. 

The seminar will be chaired by MEP Werner Kuhn, who defended together with MEP Marco Affronte the inclusion of an obligation for the EU Member States to collect recreational fisheries socio-economic data in the framework of a legislation that was recently adopted (the Fisheries Data Collection Framework Directive). Unfortunately, the Council of EU Member States found that this would create an unnecessary additional burden for the Member State administrations.

The seminar will also bring a speaker from the US administration, who will introduce the audience into what role data and socio-economics of recreational fisheries play in US fisheries management. Moreover, the seminar will, among other things, demonstrate why socio-economic data on recreational sea fisheries is needed for fisheries legislators, managers and businesses.