German Fisheries Day: Fishermen concerned: Wind farms reduce fishing areas

German Fisheries Day: Fishermen concerned: Wind farms reduce fishing areas

The Fisheries Day in Hamburg is about the future of the industry. It sees itself threatened from several sides.

Before the start of the German Fisheries Day in Hamburg, the industry expressed clear discontent. “Politicians are currently nailing us coastal fishermen to the wall,” said the vice president of the German Fisheries Association (DFV), Dirk Sander. The fishermen are losing one fishing area after another due to the construction of offshore wind farms, said Sander.

Industry representatives also voiced criticism over reduced subsidies and restrictions on aquaculture, i.e. the controlled breeding of fish and other aquatic creatures.

The German Fishing Day is the annual nationwide meeting of the industry. According to the association, the meeting will be held in Hamburg for the first time since 1951. The meeting ends on Thursday. The association says it represents up to a million organized fishermen and anglers. The DFV includes four branch associations.

Fishermen want to share land

Association president Gero Hocker said that the expansion of offshore wind power is only just beginning. These are good projects, “but we have to find a way to make fishing possible in the future.” That is a political task, said Hocker, who also sits in the Bundestag for the FDP. The DFV calls for the multiple use of wind farm areas. These should also be open to fishing.

When asked, the Thünen Institute of Sea Fisheries in Bremerhaven said that wind farms have been and are being built on 907.5 square kilometers in the North Sea in the German exclusive economic zone. A tripling of this number is planned by 2034. In the future, the area will correspond to a share of around 9.6 percent in the German exclusive economic zone of the North Sea.

Reduced subsidies

Originally, five percent of the proceeds from auctioning land for offshore wind power were to go to the fishing industry as structural aid. According to the DFV, the money was cut from 670 million euros to around 134 million. Additional money was allocated differently, leaving 109 million euros left over. The association doubts that all of the money will go directly to the fishermen, it said. “We feel completely let down by German politics, by this government,” said Sander in reference to coastal fishing.

When asked, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture said that Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) had agreed with Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) and Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) to use the funds from the auction “more broadly”. The Bundestag then decided that the ministry would have less money than before as a so-called fisheries component. It is currently being clarified how the funds will be used. A small grant for increased operating costs for fishermen has already been increased.

Aquaculture stagnates

It is not just land and subsidies that concern the fishing industry. The association criticizes the fact that legal requirements such as water, nature conservation and fish disease law and bureaucracy are hindering aquaculture. The potential of mussel production in Schleswig-Holstein cannot be fully exploited. The stock is also at risk because fish-eating animals such as cormorants, otters and beavers cannot be repelled. In the south, the otter is a particular problem, said the president of the Association of German Inland Fisheries and Aquaculture, Bernhard Feneis. “They can’t do anything other than remove the otter.”

Aquaculture includes the breeding of trout, carp and mussels, among other things. Worldwide, aquaculture production is now higher than that of fishing, as the latest report from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations shows. In Germany, aquaculture cannot follow this trend.

According to the Federal Statistical Office, domestic aquaculture companies produced around 35,200 tonnes last year, including algae. This figure is still below the approximately 39,200 tonnes produced in 2011. Schleswig-Holstein, Bavaria and Lower Saxony are leading the way.

Production above previous year’s level

According to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, German fisheries production last year was provisionally 194,700 tonnes. Compared to the previous year, this represents an increase of around three percent. By far the largest catch is landed abroad.

Source: Stern

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Latest Posts

This day is all about money

This day is all about money

Full house at the OÖN Money Day last year Oberbank board member Martin Seiter Carmen Treml, Agenda Austria Athos board member Manfred Pammer Economist Peter