Pave: Rules Are For Suckers, VII

Le jour 310 de Sarko

We must build world environmental governance.

Then-Jack, Now Ex-Jack,
talking the big green talk
"Citoyens de la terre" : Conférence internationale de Paris
pour une gouvernance écologique mondiale
PARIS February 7, 2007 (Élysée)

A drift-net is an expanse of net suspended between a buoyed "top-rope" and a weighed "foot-rope". The mesh of the net allows fishes of a particular size to swim through only as far as the gills; the opercula (scil., gill coverings) then snag on the net preventing the fish from backing out. [Pause.] The things you learn at Pave.

Drift-nets are highly efficient at harvesting targeted fish. Over-fishing and the "by-catch" (unintended catch, most especially dolphins) have resulted in a dizzying overlap of resolutions, regulations, and laws that effectively ban the use of this fishing gear.

We don't pretend to understand the legal standing. [Pause.] Apparently neither does France. [Pause.] Then again, Pave is not a sovereign state bound by treaty obligations and agreements.

Recognizing that a moratorium on large-scale pelagic drift-net fishing is required, notwithstanding that it will have adverse socio-economic effects on the communities involved in [such] operations ... Calls upon all members of the international community to... Ensure that a global moratorium on all large-scale pelagic drift-net fishing is fully implemented on the high seas of the world's oceans and seas, including enclosed seas and semi-enclosed seas, by 31 December 1992.

United Nations Resolution 46/215
of 20 December 1991; 3.c

FRANCE THUMBS ITS NOSE AT DRIFT-NET BAN

PARIS April 30, 1994 (New Scientist) - France has flouted a European fishing agreement* by giving its North Atlantic tuna fleet the go-ahead to use drift nets up to 5 kilometres long for another season.

... After the ministers refused to extend the exemption, the French fisheries minister, Jean Puech, announced that he would allow the tuna boats to carry on despite the EU ruling - and would ask the French navy to protect the boats if necessary.

The Commission can do little beyond taking France to the European Court of Justice for ignoring its ruling. The hearing would take years, and could lead to little more than a reprimand.

ILLEGAL BLUEFIN TUNA FISHING CARRIES ON

June 28, 2007 (Telegraph) - The Commission has announced that it is taking France to court for allowing the catching of bluefin tuna by 80 boats with drift nets since the practice was banned in 2002.

However badly written prior laws, the EU unequivocally intended drift-net fishing banned by 2008.

From 1 January 2008 it shall be prohibited to keep on board, or use for fishing, driftnets.

Council Regulation (EC) No 2187/2005
of 21 December 2005; Article 9;
Restrictions on driftnets, 1

FRANCE FORCED TO STOP ILLEGAL DRIFT NET FISHING

March 17, 2008 (Telegraph) - The [European Court] has refused to grant the French Government a temporary exemption to allow fishermen attempting to catch endangered bluefin tuna and swordfish to go on using drift nets that were prohibited in the EU in 2002.

The French government, however, granted a legal exemption to its fishermen in the Mediterranean arguing that their nets did not fit the definition of drift net because they were anchored - though environmentalists reported that this was seldom the case. In 2007, however, these legal loopholes were eliminated when the EU approved a legal definition of a drift net.

Xavier Pastor, executive director of Oceana in Europe:

This decision is a very important step to eliminate driftnets from the Mediterranean. The ruling also mentions the fact that these nets have been banned for the capture of threatened species since 2002, and not only since the 2007 EU agreement on a driftnet definition, as the French government has always claimed. This corroborates Oceana's long-held stance: French driftnets have been illegal since the ban entered into force, although the French government has protected them with decrees and special fishing permits.

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* The originating law was Council Regulation (EEC) No. 3094/86 of October 7, 1986. This was heavily amended over the years until recast as Council Regulation (EC) No. 894/97 of April 29, 1997, which was amended by Council Regulation (EC) No. 1239/98 of 28 September 1998 banning drift-nets as of 1 January 2002. Council Regulation (EC) No. 2187/2005 of 21 December 2005 banned this gear as of 1 January 2008. Eventually Council Regulation (EC) No. 809/2007 of 28 June 2007 closely defined drift-nets, ending French legal parsing, and conclusively banned this gear.

PFFT (What is this?): World environmental governance 1½ | French m'en-foutisme 5 | Rayonnement français 0