There is a part of fisheries and aquaculture that cannot be seen in ports, fish markets, farming sites or processing companies. It is the part made of data, statistics, definitions and information flows. It may seem far removed from the daily life of businesses, but many European decisions on the future of the sector are built precisely on this information.
This is why the proposal for a new European framework on EU fisheries and aquaculture statistics deserves attention. It is not a measure designed to immediately change the daily work of vessel owners, aquaculture producers, cooperatives or seafood supply chain companies. The point is different: improving the quality of the data used to understand the sector, assess its evolution and build policies that are closer to reality.
The European Parliament’s Fisheries Committee has adopted its position on a regulation designed to simplify and make the European statistical system for fisheries and aquaculture more coherent. The new framework, known as EFAS, aims to bring together rules currently spread across several legislative acts into a single regulation, with the objective of making data more reliable, comparable and usable at international level.
Today, European statistical collection is based on five separate regulations linked to a legislative structure that is now outdated. This fragmentation can lead to definitions that are not always consistent, overlaps in reporting and difficulties in comparing information from different countries, fleets, production areas and systems. The reform therefore has a clear purpose: to bring order, reduce duplication and make the overall picture easier to read.
For the seafood supply chain, this is not only an administrative issue. Clearer data mean a more accurate representation of what is happening in European fisheries and aquaculture. They mean more structured information on catches, landings, aquaculture production, discards, recreational fishing, sensitive species and the activities of European Union vessels, including those operating outside EU waters.
This is an important step because fisheries and aquaculture cannot be understood only through production volumes. The tonnes caught or farmed remain a fundamental indicator, but they do not tell the whole story of the sector. They do not explain the economic resilience of companies, generational renewal, the weight of costs, the ability to innovate or the role of coastal communities.
One of the most relevant aspects of the proposal concerns the introduction of more harmonised socioeconomic data. Members of the European Parliament are calling for information to be collected on elements such as age, gender, education level and income, together with some environmental parameters, including energy and water consumption. The aim is to better understand the competitiveness of the fisheries and aquaculture sectors, their dynamism and their ability to ensure generational continuity.
This point is particularly significant. Talking about the future of fisheries without updated data on who works in the sector, the economic conditions of businesses and the attractiveness of the professions means risking incomplete analysis. The same applies to aquaculture, often described as a strategic sector for European food security, but still in need of more complete and comparable data.
The proposal also pays greater attention to discards, landings, recreational fishing and the impact of catches on sensitive species. These aspects can help build a more precise picture of the pressures on marine ecosystems, while also making it possible to distinguish more clearly between different situations. Not all fleets operate in the same way, not all production systems have the same impact and not all territories face the same challenges.
Naturally, caution is needed. The text approved by the Fisheries Committee is not yet final law. The position will have to be confirmed by the European Parliament and then discussed with the governments of the Member States during the interinstitutional negotiations. Only at the end of this process will it be possible to understand the final shape of the regulation and its concrete effects on administrations, Member States and operators.
The signal, however, is clear: the European Union wants to update the way it measures fisheries and aquaculture, moving beyond a fragmented system and adapting it to a supply chain that is far more complex than in the past.
In this sense, data are not a technical detail. Incomplete data can produce an unbalanced reading of the sector. Poorly collected data can lead to poor decisions. Data that cannot be compared can make it harder to understand what is really happening across Member States, sea basins, fleets and production sites.
By contrast, stronger data can help build policies that are closer to reality. They can make the economic and social contribution of fisheries more visible. They can better show the role of aquaculture in European food security. They can highlight weaknesses, but also strengths.
The statistical reform will not solve the sector’s problems on its own. It will not reduce costs, automatically increase business profitability or magically simplify operators’ lives. But it can help build better decisions. And in a sector where every regulatory, environmental or economic choice can have significant effects on businesses and territories, starting from more reliable information is far from secondary.