Commissioner Vella welcomed participants to this follow-up of two earlier meetings on 2 March and 8 July 2016 in order to take stock of what had been learnt since then and to look ahead to the next challenges.
The European Marine Board, together with the EuroGOOS operational oceanography community are pushing a community-driven initiative to connect Europe's diverse ocean observing stakeholders together in a true European Ocean Observing System (EOOS). A conference on 21 - 23 November has attracted much interest. Already 100 participants have registered. Points raised were:
presentation on ocean observation
The report on ”Food from the Oceans” from the Commission's scientific advisers has given visibility and credibility to the ocean's potential contribution to the planet's food security through increased seafood production. The report concludes: “The scientific evidence unambiguously points to sustainable "culture" and "capture" at lower trophic levels (i.e. levels in the ocean food web below the carnivore levels currently mostly exploited) as the way to bring about such, an increase. The report suggests that we should significantly increase marine aquaculture production of non-carnivorous species including algae and bivalve shellfish and that we should move production “offshore”. Further, that we should cautiously explore the potential of currently less-exploited mesopelagic stocks. These conclusions raise some important questions. The presentation explored the status of current EU seafood supplies, the advances made in aquaculture in Europe over the last 50 years and suggested some areas of future research.
For aquaculture:
presently 74% of the European market (by value) is wild fish. The most popular seafoods are cod, tuna and salmon, with salmon being produced through aquaculture.
With respect to capture fisheries:
Food waste was not covered in the “Food from the Oceans” advice but:
The observation above, reinforce the need for truly holistic efforts including science, industry and regulators to ensure that we can develop sustaianable seafood supplies globally as well as for EU consumers.
Whilst sustainable development goal number 14 is specifically aimed at the ocean, the ocean can contribute to or benefit from reaching 60% of the 17 targets. Again the aim is to develop partnerships between industry, regulators, civil society and donors through a regionally driven process.
The International Oceanographic Commission, who have been appointed lead agency for the decade, sent out a call for expression of interest through a circular letter in May 2018. The EU can contribute to the planning, host and organise events, provide staff and finance and communicate about the decade. The decade of Ocean Science will be a focus for the EurOCEAN 2019 conference. The European marine Board have proposed that this conference might be a good place to have a regional planning meeting for the European contribution to the Decade.
The Commission's proposal for Horizon Europe, the research programme for 2021-2027, will offer a broad range of instruments. As well as curiosity-driven investigations-driven by single researchers and targeted efforts to tackle societal issues such as the ocean's role in climate there will be considerable support for realising the potential of the sea and bringing innovation to the market. Flexibility to combine with other EU instruments will increase. Points raised included:
The Commission urged the science community to engage fully in the discussion.
Commissioner Vella thanked the group. We are on the same wavelength. These are all important and urgent issues but we need to act fast. Changes to Arctic ice and the Great Barrier Reef happened faster than forecast. Prevention must be our goal; not remediation
And as the planet changes, we must change too. Malta's freshwater is already largely from desalination.
We agree that getting media on-board is definitely useful. Public pressure helped with the plastic. Coverage from BBC and Sky helped prepare the way for proposals on plastic reduction in a way that did not happen with other well-meaning proposals such as kettle design. Could it also help with environmental pressures that are arguably worse such as agriculture? Can science help to make these issues more visible?
Scientists need to become activists. They need to promote rational arguments and engage the wider community. Some non governmental bodies only follow scientific advice if it suits them.
We are working with FAO on small-scale fisheries. There will be a conference in September. Representatives of these fishermen push for exemptions from all rules but we cannot help them without better knowledge of what they are doing.
We should think about these issues and come back for further discussions in autumn.
PARTICIPANT |
AFFILIATION |
TITLE |
Karmenu Vella |
European Commission |
European Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries |
Andras Inotai |
Cabinet of Commissioner Vella |
Member of the Cabinet |
Sheila Heymans |
European Marine Board |
Executive Director |
Kate Larkin |
European Marine Board |
Senior Science Officer |
Jan Mees |
Research Foundation Flanders and Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) Belgium |
General Director |
Gilles Lericolais |
French Institute for the exploitation of the Sea (Ifremer), France |
Director of European and International Affairs |
Peter Herzig |
German Marine Research Consortium (KDM) and GEOMAR, Germany |
Executive Vice President |
Vasileios Lykousis |
Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR), Greece |
Director of the Institute of Oceanography |
Peter Heffernan |
Marine Institute (MI), Ireland |
Chief Executive |
Ferdinando Boero |
National Inter-University Consortium for Marine Sciences (CoNISMa), University of Salento, Italy |
Professor of Zoology |
Karin Kroon Boxaspen |
Institute of Marine Research (IMR), Norway |
Research Director |
Jan Marcin Weslawski |
Institute of Oceanology Polish Academy of Sciences (IOPAN), Poland |
Director |
Vitor Vasconcellos3 |
Centre for Marine and Environmental Research (CIMAR), Portugal |
Director |
Carlos Garcia-Soto |
Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO) Spain |
Joint RDI Director |
Mark James |
Marine Alliance for Science & Technology for Scotland (MASTS), UK |
Operations Director |
Robert Precali |
Ruder Boskovic Institute (IRB), Croatia |
Head of Center for Marine Research |
Yves-Marie Paulet |
Marine Universities of France and European Institute for Marine Studies (IUEM), France |
Vice President MER de l'universite |
Sheila JJ Heymans |
European Marine Board Secretariat |
Executive Director |
Kate Larkin |
European Marine Board Secretariat |
Senior Science Officer |
Bernhard Friess |
DG MARE |
Director Maritime Policy and Blue Economy |
John Bell |
DG RTD |
Director Bioeconomy |
Andrea Strachinescu Olteanu |
DG MARE |
Head of Unit – Maritime innovation, marine knowledge and investment |
Sigi Gruber |
DG RTD |
Head of Unit Marine Resources |
Iain Shepherd |
DG MARE |
Senior Expert |
Comments
Access denied
Hi,
I cannot download the presentation "ocean observations - an update" because I get this message "Access denied - This is a restricted page" even though I am logged in and I could download the other 2 presentations
Can you help me please?
regards Beatriz Balino
sorry our mistake
try now