Under pressure from concerned shareholders, one of North America’s biggest wholesale food distributors has promised to stop selling seven threatened fish species. The decision by Costco was published only weeks after Greenpeace had said a survey showed that the wholesaler/warehouse chain continued to sell fifteen of the twenty-two red listed seafood species. Meanwhile, a group … Continued
Over protests from environmentalists and the resignation of a prominent panel member, the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) has finalised certification of the Fraser River sockey salmon in Canada. Fraser River is the longest river in British Columbia, rising in the Rocky Mountains to reach the Pacific Ocean at Vancouver. When the 15-day public consultation period … Continued
A conciliatory mood over fisheries issues as Iceland entered memberships talks with the EU in late July was dispersed just two weeks later in a conflict over moving mackerel stocks. After Iceland and the Faeroe Islands have increased their mackerel TACs in the wake of stocks moving in from EU domains due to warming waters, … Continued
The former Alaska US Senator Ted Stevens who died in an airplane crash on 9 August was one of the pair the gave the 1976 Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Conservation and Management Act its name, in some respects held forth as an example to follow for the EU. The legislation under that name was introduced after USA … Continued
An increasing awareness of the effects of climate change on fish stocks – some of them dramatic, and occurring in our lifetime – was expressed by scientists at a conference in Belfast in July. Even though overfishing may be the dominating global fisheries problem, increasing evidence point to warming waters, an effect of climate change, … Continued
Draft standards have now been published in the WWF-led process to minimise environmental effects of freshwater trout aquaculture. The document, resulting from a 200-person roundtable process including scientists as well as industry representatives and environmentalists, is now open for public comment on the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) website. The process has included players from the … Continued
Swedish Board of Fisheries scientists are eagerly fishing for a Black Sea invader that has already conquered Poland, posing a threat to ecosystem balance, however eatable, preferably pickled. The Round Goby (Neogobius elanostomus), originally swimming the bottoms of the Black and Caspian Seas, was first discovered off Gdansk on Poland’s Baltic coast in 1990, but … Continued
Hoping to draw conclusions from the American experience when the EU forms a new Common Fisheries Policy, a comprehensive study looks into the US management system, partly much more ambitious and successful in fighting overfishing and rebuilding depleted stocks. The study, commissioned by the Pew Environment Group, focuses on how the Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) … Continued
A Scottish engineer has developed a potentially life-saving device that warns fishermen if their vessel is about to capsize. “Fishing is the most dangerous industry we have,” says Ken Smith, the inventor, interviewed by The Scotsman. ”But while the accident rate in other industries has been declining in recent years, there has been no corresponding … Continued
With a €1.25 billion purse, a major Japanese brokerage house is setting up what it claims to be the world’s first fisheries investment fund. Nomura Securities said the trust is in answer to a growing global demand for fish. After the assembling period August 9-19, the Japanese branch of the French Amundi assessment management company … Continued