Describing earlier efforts to reduce discards as ”treating a serious illness with aspirin”, Commissioner Maria Damanaki opened a recent meeting on the subject with EU fisheries ministers, MEPs and other high-level decision-makers. In a key-note speech to the closed-door meeting in Brussels on 1 March, Damanaki pointed out that the Union is doing much worse … Continued
Larry the Cat, the Prime Minister’s resident rat-catcher and First Pet at No 10 Downing Street, is likely to eat more sustainable fish than his master, British environmentalists acidly point out. Describing the British Government’s fish buying standards as “an embarrassing failure”, several NGOs remark in a letter to PM David Cameron that leading pet … Continued
In a joint initiative by authorities, anglers and landowners, re-stocking of pike will hopefully help to solve a lack of predator fish in Stockholm’s scenic outer archipelago. The sharp decline of the Eastern Baltic cod stock from the mid-1980s caused a seriously disturbed balance in the sensitive ecosystem there, in its turn partially explaining both … Continued
A grand prize total of $30,000 and two $10,000 runner-up awards are in the pot as the WWF is launching the 2011 International Smart Gear Design Competition aimed at reducing bycatches. Additionally, in partnership with the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF), the competition is offering a $7,500 special tuna prize that will be awarded to … Continued
A Commission-hosted workshop with member states and stakeholders from around the Baltic Sea has ended in a joint call for the Commission’s top advisory body to explore possible ways of introducing flexibility into the current effort management system, without increasing fishing mortality or realised fishing effort. The request was addressed to the Scientific, Technical and … Continued
Even though many, at first sight, would prefer sardines on the table to sharks in the water, the decline of predator fish in the oceans has led to an excess of smaller species that seriously threatens the ecological balance, scientists say. A new study, presented recently at the American Association for the Advancement of Science … Continued
Representing a majority of fishing jobs around the Mediterranean, artisanal fishermen from four nations have launched a common platform to promote more sustainable fisheries. Small-scale fishermen from France, Greece, Italy and Spain had gathered in the port of Arenys de Mar in Catalonia, Spain, to stake out common ground in light of the upcoming reform … Continued
A last-minute campaign in the February Fisheries Council failed to stop an extension of the controversial EU-Morocco agreement. Only Sweden, Denmark and the UK voted against. Under that agreement, the European Union has paid Morocco €144 million over the last four years to fish Moroccan waters, primarily by Spanish fleets. Much of those fisheries are … Continued
An extension of the European Union’s controversial fishing agreement with Morocco came one step closer as the member states’ EU ambassadors voted to send the proposal to a final vote among the fisheries ministers on Monday. A last-ditch effort to stop the proposal in Coreper, the ambassadors’ assembly, failed as some nations with many votes, … Continued
To protect a dwindling whitefish stock, the Swedish Board of Fisheries is planning to establish a non-fishing zone in the southern Bothnian Sea. The Board considers the lavaret or common whitefish (Coregonus lavaretus) as important for both professional fishermen and anglers. Historically, this fishery has been particularly widespread in the Bothnian Bay where catches have … Continued