The Irish environmental charity Friends of the Irish Environment [FIE] will claim that Ireland is guilty of a systemic violation of a legally-binding deadline to end overfishing at an EU court hearing on Thursday, March 16th.
The test case was referred to the Luxemburg-based European Court of Justice by High Court Justice Barr after a three-day hearing in December 2021.
Article 2(2) of the Common Fisheries Policy [CFP] European Regulations passed in 2013 required member states to end overfishing ‘by 2015 where possible and, on a progressive, incremental basis at the latest by 2020 for all stocks.”
This measure was designed to restore all stocks above healthy levels capable of producing a "maximum sustainable yield".
The ‘maximum sustainable yield’ is determined by the International Council for Exploration of the Seas (ICES), the internationally accepted independent scientific authority.
It is defined as the amount of "spawning stock biomass" that can be taken of any species without significantly affecting the reproduction process.
FIE argues that limiting the annual catch to maximum sustainable yield ‘is the necessary pre-condition to be environmentally sustainable, to ensure the availability of food supplies, and to enable the long-term economic, social and employment benefits.
The action taken by the NGO highlights what is known as "choke species", such as cod in the west of Scotland.
Scientists have been advising, in some cases for almost two decades, that there should be no quotas for these species, but ministers have continued to ignore this advice, FIE claims.