Public subsidies have supported the development of electric trawling in Europe

In the 2000s, the Dutch beam trawl fleet was in chronic deficit and under pressure to reduce its environmental impact. Instead of converting to selective fishing gears, it successfully lobbied the European Commission with the support of public authorities and scientists to obtain derogations against formal scientific advice to practice a prohibited technique: electric trawling. Since then, electric trawling has expanded beyond regulatory threshold: 84 large trawlers now catch the vast majority of the Dutch flatfish quota, causing detrimental socio-environmental impacts. To assess whether the European Union's fisheries policies fulfilled legal objectives and implemented the 2030 Agenda, it appeared crucial to quantify how much public financial aid had been provided to the Dutch fishing sector for its conversion to electric trawling. The financial information enabling this evaluation was first concealed but was eventually obtained. We show that the institutional opacity surrounding electric trawling was not serendipitous and has served to dissimulate allocations of public monies to a prohibited fishing method (otter trawl), illegal licenses, and falsely 'scientific' fishing. In breach of EU laws, 20.8 million EUR of structural funds have so far been granted to this sector in the form of direct subsidies, i.e. over 30 times the amount acknowledged by the fishing industry. The findings presented here lift part of the veil surrounding electric trawling, but the complete reconstruction of the impacts of this fishing method can only be done when decision-makers and scientists disclose all data in full transparency and become the warrants of the public interest.

在21世纪初，荷兰的拖网捕鱼船队长期处于慢性赤字状态，并承受着减轻其环境影响压力。该船队并未转向采用选择性渔具，而是在公共机构和科学家的支持下，成功游说欧洲委员会，获得对正式科学建议的豁免，以实施一项被禁止的技术：电拖网捕鱼。自那时起，电拖网捕鱼已超出监管阈值：目前有84艘大型拖网渔船捕获了荷兰鲽鱼配额的大部分，造成了有害的社会环境影响。为了评估欧盟的渔业政策是否实现了法律目标并实施了2030年议程，量化荷兰渔业部门为转换至电拖网捕鱼而获得的公共财政援助显得至关重要。用于进行此项评估的财务信息最初被隐瞒，但最终被获取。我们发现，围绕电拖网捕鱼的制度透明度并非偶然，它被用来掩饰对一项被禁止的捕鱼方法（水獭拖网）、非法许可证以及虚假的‘科学’捕鱼的公共资金分配。违反欧盟法律，迄今为止已有2080万欧元的结构性资金以直接补贴的形式发放给了该行业，即超过渔业行业承认金额的30倍。此处呈现的研究成果揭开了一部分电拖网捕鱼的神秘面纱，但要对这种捕鱼方法的影响进行全面重建，唯有当决策者和科学家完全公开所有数据，并成为公众利益的担保人时才能实现。