News
November 10, 2006
Baltic Anglers: Restore the Baltic Sea and recognize angling interests now!
November 7, angling representatives from the Baltic countries met in Visby, Sweden. The meeting agreed on the joint statement: “The Baltic Sea in focus”. Every year, millions of people in the countries around the Baltic Sea fish for recreational purposes. Among large groups of people, sportfishing promote physical activity and contact with nature. Recreational angling … Continued
November 6, 2006
Science report on the Ecosystem Effects of Fishing
According to a report published in the current edition of Science, there is a risk of collapse of the world’s seafood populations by 2048 if current trends in destruction and overfishing continue. Scientific data going back to the 1960s and historical records of over thousand years reveal that marine biodiversity has declined dramatically, with 29% … Continued
October 25, 2006
Baltic TACs and quotas for 2007: Cod stocks at risk of depletion
The Council decided on the 24th October on the levels of TACs (Total Allowable Catch), the level of agreed fishing in the Baltic for 2007. The decision is a 10% reduction of the TAC for the eastern Cod stock (from 45 339 in 2006 to 40 805 tonnes in 2007) and a 5% reduction of … Continued
October 24, 2006
Baltic Sea RAC to arrange a conference on IUU in late March
The Baltic Sea Regional Advisory Council (RAC) is planning a conference on illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing in Copenhagen in March 2007. The focus of the conference is to identify the actions needed to minimize IUU in the Baltic Sea. The conference aims to adress the relationship between catching capacity and the catching opportunities … Continued
October 23, 2006
Scientists proposes to close all cod fisheries south of Iceland except for the western Baltic stock
The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) released a report on October 20 on the status and perspectives of some of the most important Northeast Atlantic fish stocks. The 22 international scientists of the Advisory Committee on Fishery Management (ACFM) analysed the status of commercial fish stocks in the Northeast Atlantic. The … Continued
October 16, 2006
EU Commission Statement on High Seas bottom trawling too weak
The Deep Sea Conservation Coalition (DSCC), of which the Fisheries Secretariat is a member, accused the European Commission of greenwashing a set of proposals designed to undermine the growing support for a high seas moratorium on bottom trawling, and noted that it did not seem to reflect the will of all EU Member States. This … Continued
October 10, 2006
Successful workshop on the EFF
NGO’s from a wide range of Member States were represented at the workshop “Implementing the European Fisheries Fund – Opportunities at Member State level”. There has been a lot of positive response from the workshop held in Brussels 5 October. Apart from the organisers FISH, WWF, and BirdLife International the following NGO’s participated in the … Continued
September 28, 2006
Workshop – Implementing the EFF – Opportunities at Member State level
WWF, FISH, and BirdLife International will host a workshop on the implementation of the EFF and the opportunities for NGO’s to influence the fund at the Member State Level. Background The recently adopted European Fisheries Fund (EFF) provides a major opportunity to promote sustainable fisheries over the next seven years. The EFF’s 3.8 Billion Euro … Continued
September 21, 2006
NGO’s call on governments to oppose the proposed de minimis regulation
In June, the European Commission proposed to decouple the de minimis aid in the fisheries sector from that in the agricultural sector and to increase it tenfold. Under the new regulation, up to € 30.000 of state aid would not need to be notified to the European Commission if given to an enterprise over a … Continued
July 27, 2006
The European Commission’s multi-annual plan for the Cod stocks and fisheries in the Baltic Sea
On 24 July the European Commission published its proposal for a Council Regulation to establish a multi-annual plan for the Baltic Sea cod stocks and their fisheries. Despite the adoption and implementation of a management plan under the auspicious of the International Baltic Sea Fishery Commission (IBSFC) in 2003, the two cod stocks in the … Continued