Category: Article

What’s next in digital fisheries monitoring?

With the ever increasing technological advances in Electronic Monitoring, fisheries are now entering the world of advanced analytics and data-driven planning, things that would have seemed to come straight out of a science fiction novel just a few years ago are already operational now. To manage and monitor fisheries a good understanding of where fisheries … Continued

Press release: NGOs urge EP to push for full implementation of the CFP

Brussels 16 March 2022: Ahead of the European Parliament’s public hearing on the implementation and future perspectives of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) tomorrow, NGOs are calling on EU institutions and Member States to better follow and enforce the rules of the policy, rather than considering any reform at this stage. Vera Coelho, Senior Director … Continued

Record catch of ghost fishing gear on the Swedish West coast

Sotenäs, a municipality on the Swedish West coast, has been running a ghost fishing project since 2017 where they find and retrieve lost fishing gear. Lost fishing gear such as lobster tins in the sea leads to fish and shellfish finding their way into them and eventually dying, so-called ghost fishing. Last Friday, February 18, … Continued

Overfishing continues in EU waters

Yesterday, the Fisheries Council came to an agreement on fishing opportunities in 2022 for the North Sea, Atlantic, Mediterranean and Black seas. More than a third of stock will continue to be overfished in 2022. No agreement has been reached with the UK, so provisional quotas have been put in place for the first quarter of 2022. The European Commission still hopes that an agreement can be reach by 20 December at the latest.

Not a great deal for eel in 2022

After stark and clear scientific advice calling for zero catches of the critically endangered European eel in all habitats, the Fisheries Council agreed on a roll-over of the – so far poorly implemented – three-month eel fishing closures.

Proposal on eel not aligned with scientific advice

Instead of following the scientific advice, the Commission wants to strengthen the implementation of the three-month eel fishing closures and conduct a wide-ranging stakeholder consultation. Even this is likely to meet with resistance from Member States.

Herring fisheries drove economic development in the Baltic Sea

Stockholm university together with the Swedish Institute for the Marine Environment hosted a full day symposium with a focus on fisheries in the Baltic Sea from a historical perspective. The newly released report “Fisket i Stockholms skärgård under historisk tid”, Fisheries in the Stockholm archipelago in historic times, was the underlying reason for the event. … Continued