Marta Cavallé, Executive Secretary of the LIFE Platform during the opening session. From left to right: André Dias, a fisher from the Algarve, Portugal, Marta, Tobias Troll, Policy Director of Seas At Risk, and Thomas Bajada, hosting MEP from Malta

As recently as 2022, in the occasion of our active participation in the European leg in Malta of the 4th world small-scale fisheries congress organised by the global research network ‘Too Big To Ignore‘, we recommended two major ways to strengthen small-scale fisheries in order to become the future of fisheries:

• one was to team up with nature conservation groups to fight together for regenerating resources so that there was fish for all rather than fighting over the poor remains of mismanagement;
• the other one was to recognise the essential role of women across the value chains and welcome them also to leadership positions.

Over the last two years the Low Impact Fishers of Europe, the LIFE Platform, and Seas At Risk took that to heart. In several rounds of conversations, they developed a shared vision about how responsible fisheries should look like in the future. That vision invites all of us to ‘Rethink Fisheries’. It’s a vision for low impact and fair fisheries, nurturing people and the environment that was presented and debated in the European Parliament in Brussels, on 11 December 2025.

So, it was all the more encouraging that it was MEP Thomas Bajada of the S&D political group from Malta, who hosted the meeting in the European Parliament. In his welcome speech, he lamented that small-scale fishers had all but disappeared from his community and that the resource situation was dire for them to keep making a living. He suggested that ocean governance should be approached as one connected theme benefiting from reviving local markets and communities, making space for women’s equal opportunities, drawing on all instruments diplomacy and dedicated institutions, like regional fisheries management organisations can muster and incorporating technological and ecological knowledge.

The Mediterranean is still the region of most European small-scale fishers (SSF) casting back their deep cultural roots more than 2000 years into the times of the Roman Republic. No stranger to local overfishing even then (see e.g. the story of the sturgeon), the Mediterranean fishers have still managed to thrive thanks to a culture of respect for the sea, source of life, food and wealth, technological restraint and ecological knowledge of the sea and its organisms.

But present day European seas are a pittance of their former productivity as a result of mismanagement for short-term profit and technological overkill, now hard to make economically viable without public subsidies. This is why Tobias Troll, Policy Director of Seas At Risk, and Marta Cavallé, Executive Secretary of the LIFE Platform, underscored right from the beginning the importance of sharing a vision of how fair and well-managed fisheries of the future should look like. André Dias, former sardine fisher from the Algarve in Portugal added food for thought. He recalled very rich sardine catches in his youth on simple artisanal boats, but had to give up when industrial vessels took more than could regrow. Now, despite all the big boats with advanced technologies catch a third of the previous annual catches. That’s neither good management nor meaningful economics.

Then the big question becomes: how to we trace the road of transition towards operationalising the vision of low impact and fair fisheries. Calling on researchers to provide some inputs, Didier Gascuel, Professor in marine ecology, L’Institut Agro (Rennes, France), was connected online and explained the principles of what he terms ‘Eco-Fisheries’ (or pêche écologie). It entails protecting juvenile fish, the biggest old females in a population which have the best genes and account for the majority of reproduction of their populations. It also entails catching only as much as can regrow within a year. Under present conditions of very weak remaining populations, the proper enforcement of marine protected areas was a critical need to regenerate fish populations and the functioning of entire ecosystems. He also advocated that management should aim at maximising the economic, social and societal utility of the fishery. He was convinced that this could best be achieved by coastal fisheries offering ample employment. He emphasised that cooperation and collective governance were harbingers of success.

Cristina Pita speaking at the SSF Congress in Malta, 2022

Cristina Brice Pita is a Researcher at CESAM/ University of Aveiro (UA), Portugal and an expert in socioeconomic aspects of fisheries for the United Nations World Ocean Assessment, among others. She participated remotely. Cristina reminded the meeting that European fisheries provided 60,000 jobs at sea and approximately 130,000 in processing. 76% of the former were in SSF, only 24% in industrial fisheries, while the landbased jobs were about 53% artisanal and 47% industrial. She regretted that the labour force was primarily painted as a cost factor to be ideally replaced by machinery.

Her perspective on how to manage the transition to low impact and fair fisheries started out with labour relations being grounded in human rights and fair treatment. She posited that where top-down governance was replaced by forms of power sharing it enabled better results through adaptive management and shared responsibility. But she recognised that it was challenging to define how to go about the transition in the current context of scare resources and high earnings for only few companies.

Many good principles, but how to scale the transition so that we move towards low impact fisheries and greater fairness? Paula Barbeito, Fundación Lonxanet, had no doubt that it was important to start by giving SSF not only some fishing quota, but involve them in the management of strictly protected areas to broaden support for resource recovery. That certainly required some political will. But she submitted that fostering a renewed culture of quality seafood could become a game changer, albeit not immediately.

The audience then heard from two practitioners about how they were labouring towards reform. Mark Eskelund from a Danish producer organisation composed of small-scale fishers highlighted that by now about 25% of Danish SSF adhered and worked towards to restore the sea and rescue it from industrial overfishing, agricultural overfertilisation and pollution from both land-based and marine sources. They wanted to make SSF attractive again, stopping bottom trawling and putting emphasis on high quality rather than quantity. He reported that they were at times travelling on stony roads, full of obstacles, but had benefited from some political support that had been critical for establishing the producer organisation with access to some funding towards the transition.

Jan Versteden, Pintafish, and Mark Esklund of a Danish producer organisation

Other experiences were presented by Isabel Marx whose organisation Pleine Mer bought boats with fishing quota for young fishers to make sure there was generational renewal and quota would not be snatched by industrial companies. She observed that industrial fishers got three times more subsidies than artisanal ones, while it was important to promote diversification and adapted solutions to cope with climate change and other macro-developments. Part of the strategy was also to develop an action plan for women. As part of the diversification it was worthwhile to try also aquaculture of animals low in the food web.

Finally, Jan Versteden, Director of Pintafish, shared some experiences in promoting transparency and monitoring of fisheries and the value chain. During the many years in marketing only fish meeting certain sustainability criteria he noted that no consumer wanted to destroy the resources, let alone the planet, but that it was challenging for them to avoid buying fish from overexploited stocks. He pleaded for prohibition of imports from overfished resources as neither small companies even less consumers had the capacity to check the value chain completely.

Tobias Troll then invited the audience to react to the rich menu of experiences and suggestions. Cornelia Nauen from Mundus maris seized the opportunity to add some more contextualisation to the urgency of consolidating and also extend the cooperation also to additional groups affected by misguided types of industrialisation, like bio-farmers. As the electoral weight of remaining SSF in the EU had shrunk, it should be a priority to reach out to as many citizens as possible who want to reconnect to the sea, appreciate the quality of fresh seafood, its food, health, and social value as evoked by Paula Barbeito. As the industrial lobby was strong and well funded, the challenge was formidable. But it was necessary to stand up for SSF and nature at a time where ministers had set higher quota than proposed for the Baltic, sounding the death knell for an already badly battered ecosystem. To add insult to injury, much of the quota was for the Danish reduction fishery rather than for food fishery. That had to stop!

Tobias Troll asking D. Vaigauskaite of DG MARE about the Ocean Act and how it was to deliver towards a regenerative ocean economy

Other comments and questions centered on time lines for the transition and technical and other steps that could be taken. In the final round of discussions D. Vaigauskaite of DG MARE assured the organisers and audience that much of the vision was shared by the EU or at least views were strongly converging, such as on co-management and other points. She still cautioned that the way of how to shape the transition was more challenging and probably fraud with diverging views among different stakeholders, including governments.

D. Vaigauskaite outlined some steps towards the Ocean Act: the on-going evaluation of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) was due for April 2026. It should deliver an evidence-based assessment. Commissioner Kadis was also scheduled to deliver a vision for the future. That would influence the structure of the pathway taking into account demand trends, how to ensure sustainable supply without a huge energy foot print. Labour questions needed attention, including reskilling to diversify activities in coastal communities. Last but not least the vision due in autumn 2026 needed to take into consideration the macro-picture, including an ageing population, look at the tools, infrastructure and finance needed for implementation.

Marta Cavallé and Tobias Troll during the closure

The forthcoming Ocean Days in March 2026 were an opportunity to continue the dialogue. She also invited participants to respond to the call for evidence to be published shortly on the Commission’s consultation website. The questions of the future Mediumterm Financial Framework (MFF) are hotly debated. There was some agreement towards simplification. SSF should be able to obtain up to 100% funding e.g. to support generational renewal, but many aspects still needed to be worked out.

On this, MEP Bajada in his closing remarks expressed hope that such simplification could indeed be translated into actual positive change. The Ocean Pact needed to become operational thanks to a bottom-up Ocean Act.

What do we take home? Low impact fishers and environmentalists are sharing a vision for regenerating marine ecosystems and transiting towards fair fisheries. It is positive that they present these in the European Parliament. In the light of decisions in EU member states to allocate again the lion’s share of fishing quota to industrial vessels with a questionable track record illustrates the need for still broader mobilisation and continued dialogue to explore feasible steps for much needed change. That’s a call for action to all who are interested in healing the ocean and reconnecting. Mundus maris invites you to join the journey. Read the vision here.

Text and pictures by Cornelia E Nauen.