On 25 October, the European Commission launched a targeted stakeholder consultation on the planned Action plan to conserve fisheries resources and protect marine ecosystems. The action plan is part of the EUs efforts to restore and protect marine ecosystems and apply an ecosystem-based management approach.
Today, the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, ICES, published its scientific advice on fishing opportunities for European eel for 2022. It is now aligned with advice for other species in dire straits: zero catch for 2022. The advice also includes a clear call for catches for restocking to stop, as it increases eel mortality without any proven net benefit to eel reproduction.
After October Agrifish Council, which focused in particular on the proposal for a Council regulation fixing the fishing opportunities in the Baltic Sea for 2022 Member States’ governments published press releases. Most of the countries emphasized the terrible state of the Baltic Sea and the lengthy and difficult negotiations in the Council. The reactions to … Continued
Negotiations of the 2022 fishing quotas for the Baltic Sea on 11-12 October 2021 resulted in a prohibition of all targeted fishing for cod in the Baltic Sea – both the eastern and the western cod populations are now in such bad shape that only a small bycatch quota is allowed. This clearly illustrates the deterioration of both the environment and many fish stocks in all of the Baltic Sea.
This week, the recurring Swedish television programme Uppdrag Granskning – Mission: Investigate in English – highlighted the plight of the European eel and the ineffectiveness of many of the current management measures. It focused particularly on the devastating effects of hydropower installations and the costly, artificial support provided by restocking and trap-and-transport.
Press release from Coalition Clean Baltic, FishSec, Our Fish, Oceana, Seas at Risk and WWF Luxembourg, 12 October 2021: Following the EU AGRIFISH Council press conference today, NGOs expressed disappointment that Member State fisheries ministers again haggled all night to raise Baltic fishing limits for 2022 above the European Commission’s proposal and against the clear … Continued
Today is a good day for rivers, biodiversity and migratory fish. Together with Professor Peter Baldwin and Dr Lisbet Rausing, founders of Arcadia, the Dam Removal Europe Coalition launched an entirely new programme to fund dam removal in Europe.
The Return of the cod project, which started at the beginning of 2021, aims to compile the current knowledge and scientific research concerning the state of the Baltic cod in order to work out and implement measures to recover the eastern cod stock. The Return of the Cod (RoC) project has progressed since its onset … Continued
At a recent seminar in Simrishamn, Sweden, a new research programme that will investigate genetic diversity as part of environmental monitoring and ecosystem-based management, including the impact of fishing on herring sub-populations in the Baltic Sea, was announced.
Today the European Commission adopted their proposal for fishing opportunities for Baltic Fisheries 2022. The proposal mostly follows the ICES advice and proposes a TAC within the lower range for sprat and plaice considering the poor situation of the cod. For the Western herring it is suggested to close all direct fishery and a bycatch … Continued