A study of demersal fish species in the North Sea over a 25 year period has shown that most fish are moving deeper and further north to escape rising sea temperatures. The study, published online in the journal Science on 12 May, was led by conservation ecologists Allison Perry and John Reynolds at the University … Continued
This week, the North Sea Regional Advisory Council (NSRAC) Spatial Planning Working Group held its first meeting in London. The aim of the meeting was to set up Terms of Reference for the group, established at the Executive Committee meeting in Boulogne earlier this year. The first day of the workshop provided participants with an … Continued
On 10-11 May, a range of Polish stakeholders interested in Baltic Sea fisheries management came together in Gdynia to discuss sustainability. A number of different issues were discussed, among them control and monitoring, subsidies to the sector, the status of the Baltic harbour porpoise, implementation of the Habitats and Birds directives in Poland, and the … Continued
On 28 April, the Swedish Fishermen’s Federation elected Henrik Svenberg to be their new Chairman. He is current working at Sweden’s Permanent Representation in Brussels, as First Secretary, Foreign Relations, with responsibility for sub-Saharan Africa and ACP. During the Swedish Presidency in Spring 2001, he was the Swedish Fisheries Attaché, leading negotiations on EU fisheries … Continued
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) has launched a new initiative to combat bycatch of albatrosses and other seabirds in global longline fisheries. A team of experts called Operation Ocean Task Force will train fishermen in areas with particularly high levels of bycatch how to prevent seabird deaths when fishing. Every year, … Continued
Marine scientists and fishermen rarely agree on the status of fish stocks and the science behind it. In a recent project, ESRC set out to find ways to improve cooperation. Marine scientists and fishermen rarely agree on the status of fish stocks, and fishermen are generally sceptical to the way they are calculated and predicted. … Continued
The FAO Committee on Fisheries (COFI) adopted international guidelines on the ecolabelling of marine fisheries products, aimed at promoting sustainable and ecologically responsible fisheries, at their meeting in Rome, 7-11 March. The new FAO guidelines set out principles for ecolabelling of products from marine capture fisheries and specify the minimum requirements and criteria for assessing … Continued
The FAO’s Committee on Fisheries met in Rome to discuss pressing issues, including progress towards responsible fisheries, deep sea fisheries and rehabilitating fisheries affected by the December tsunami. The 26th meeting of the Committee on Fisheries (COFI), a subsidiary body of the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), was held in Rome, 7-11 March. … Continued
When EU Fisheries and Agricultural Ministers met on 26 April, a regulation to set up the new EU Fisheries Control Agency was adopted.
In a recent study BirdLife International reports that Regional Fisheries Management Organisations are largely failing in their obligation to reduce seabird bycatch. In a report released 7 March, BirdLife International concluded that Regional Fisheries Management Organisations (RFMOs) are largely failing in their duty to reduce albatross bycatch in longline fisheries. Nineteen of the 21 species … Continued