Hosted by MEP Paulo do Nascimento Cabral, Member of the Fisheries Committee and Vice-Chair of the SEArica Intergroup, this EU Ocean Week session on Wednesday, 15 October 2025, showcased some good practice cases of marine protection typically based on active involvement of artisanal fishers or even initiated by them.

The principal aim of the 300,000 sqkm large Azores Marine Protected Area – Blue Azores – is to protect the 140 sea mounts with their deep sea fauna and generally rebuild the biomass of valuable marine species for nature protection and a viable local fishery, but also e.g. for the further development of dive tourism and sport fishing.

Scientific documentation, e.g. of the gorgonian soft corals, millennial black corals, and the mapping of diverse other habitats is complemented by supporting activities in schools.

Joining the session, Commissioner for Fisheries and Oceans Costas Kadis acknowledged MPAs as a key conservation tool to sustain the functions and productivity of marine ecosystems. He expressed his belief that the objective to protect 30% of European waters is only achievable with good management plans and strong citizen involvement.

Dr. Rui Martins, Regional Director of Maritime Affairs and Adriano Quintela, Marine Spatial Planning Specialist, Blue Azores Programme providing details of the MPA programme

Dr. Rui Martins, Regional Director of Maritime Affairs, and Adriano Quintela, Marine Spatial Planning Specialist, Blue Azores Programme
shared insights into what has been achieved so far. Nevertheless, there are also challenges as some politicians would be inclined to allow fishing for industrial vessels around sea mounts after 16 years of closure, but the local fishers resent such a move.

Half the MPA is fully protected, and other half is highly protected.

It is very important to achieve as high a protection as possible as half baked measures risk only to antagonise potential users without generating broad benefits. So far 12.3% of European waters are declared as marine protected areas. Sadly, they are mostly paper parks, where even particularly destructive bottom trawling is allowed. The target of protecting 30% of marine spaces by 2030 seems thus beyond reach, even if only 10% were to be fully protected. Blue Azores shows the benefits of real protection, but also raises desires of a fast gain at the expense of all others.

If the EU's robust environmental legislation were enforced, e.g. the Birds and Habitats Directives, the Marine Framework Directive and the prohibition of overfishing in the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), annual catches would not be declining year after year, despite significant and costly technological effort of industrial fisheries.

Blue Marine Foundation is working with local fishers to push for precautionary approaches in line with the legislation and better enforcement by national and regional authorities. The examples presented were from Italy and Greece. Dr. Giulia Bernardi, Senior Programme Manager of the Foundation, and Santo Ruggera, a member of the Responsible Fishing Association of Salina, Sicily, Italy, reported on how the fishers were reviving ancient practices that had lower impact, including by limiting the number of traps, longlines and other gear and emphasing quality instead thanks to ice boxes provided by the Foundation. The project involves schools, restaurants and local seafood vendors and, indeed, the entire community. As a result, the local government recognised the initiative in March 2024.

Michalis Croessmann of the Association of Professional Fishers of Amorgos, Greece, and Angela Lazou Dean, Senior Project Manager, Blue Marine Foundation

In the Greek island of Amorgos, the fishers of the Professional Fishing Association of Amorgos took the initiative to protect three spawning areas. Over the years, they had seen their catches decline and pollution increase, but no response to their pleadings to the government. In 2021, led by Michalis Croesmann, they started implementing measures in order to ensure their future. They stopped fishing during the main spring spawning season and instead in 2021 used their boats to collect garbage from inaccessible beaches. Thanks to some crowd funding and support from the Cyclades Preservation Fund (CPF) and Enaleia, they continued these measures in 2022 and were able to send 15 tons of plastic and 3 tons of lost fishing gear to recycling.

The Greek government accepted the findings of a year-long research by a team from the Agricultural University in Athens that confirmed the assessment of the fishers. The formal acceptance of the three no-fish areas goes hand in hand with the ambition to achieve 10% strictly protected areas throughout the country's marine waters. Progress is possible when people, institutions and policy are aligned.

Henrique Folhas, conservation and restoration expert of the NGO SCIAENA used the occasion to launch a new Guide with 7 tips for MPAs. André Dias, hailing from a fishing family explained that in his community in Albufeira, in the Algarve, Portugal, the old fishers wanted to keep their age old culture by protecting the areas of hard rock and coral and the productivity of the ecosystem these habitats sustain. 14 out of 17 fishing communities supported the establishment and enforcement of an MPA. He concluded that 100 years ago, the fishers in their rowing boats would catch some 100,000 tons of sardines, while todays powerful industrial boats can't catch more than 30,000 tons. That should make everybody think again when more costly, sophisticated technology is proposed as the solution. Not just food for thought, but for action in Algarve and elsewhere: fish less to have more.

Following the presentations of these case studies and initiatives, the moderator, Dr. Jean-Luc Solandt, Senior Project Manager,
Blue Marine Foundation, opened the floor to participants. Cornelia E Nauen of Mundus maris asbl got the only opportunity to comment. In her intervention, she made three points:

• what appears to us today as mostly artisanal fisheries have provided marine food for growing populations over long periods. Their technologies became more sophisticated over time, but for the most part took from the sea what could regrow in a year. This way,  the European fisheries for Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) in what is today Newfoundland could thrive on the rich cod populations for 500 years, taking out between 100,000 and 400,000 tons/year. With the onset of large-scale industrial fishing in the early 1960s catches were pushed to a peak of 1.4 million tons leading to the first collapse. After a short respite the second collapse came in the early 1990s with no recovery since. Industrial fishing broke the neck of the bonanza.

• Shifting baselines are a major obstacle for many people, including industrial fishers, to appreciate the critical importance of marine protected areas for regenerating ocean health and ecosystem productivity. Shifting baselines mean that every new generation takes as a reference what they have found or perceived at the beginning of their career.  The lure of innovation and technology fix discourses overshadows the proper interpretation of sequential collapses of fisheries following periods of excessive catches beyond the regrowth capacities of resources. The race since the 1970s to fish further south or north, even into areas previously covered by polar ice, and deeper down, where life is slow and very few years of industrial assault suffice to wipe out long-lived and slow reproducing species. But by now, industrial fleets have nowhere new to go and destroy.

Source: Pauly D, Christensen V, Dalsgaard J, Froese R and Torres F (1998) „Fishing down marine food webs" Science, 279: 860-863.

• As part of the Ocean Pact and the planning for healthy and resilient futures of European marine waters and socially, economically and environmentally viable fisheries the strategic importance of small-scale fisheries must be recognised. Within a generation, industrial overshoot needs to be phased out. Thanks to redirecting harmful fisheries subsidies towards transitions towards virtuous resource regeneration and revival of small-scale fisheries using fixed gear that are carbon neutral and low impact. We will always have some knowledge gaps, but we know enough to act.

In the concluding remarks, MEP Marco Falcone, Substitute Member of the Fisheries Committee, saw a lot of scope for more in-depth dialogue. What is Europe willing to give to put back its seas into good health?

Text and photos Cornelia E. Nauen. A more detailed account of two cases of marine protection initiatives by artisanal fishers, including the one in Amorgos, is here.