News
March 8, 2011
Poll shows Japanese consumer awareness
Consumers in Japan, the world’s biggest seafood market, want both sustainably caught and clearly labelled fish products, a poll commissioned by Greenpeace shows. More than half of survey respondents said they would like to see labels on seafood products indicating that they were caught using sustainable methods, while less than 20 percent of them said … Continued
March 8, 2011
…and Brits, Dutch, follow suit
Recent surveys in both the UK and the Netherlands highlight sharp increases in consumer spending on sustainable seafood, despite almost no rise at all in overall household expenditures during tough financial times. Independent research shows a 154 percent increase in consumer spending on sustainable seafood in the UK, and a 50 percent increase in the … Continued
March 3, 2011
Ministers discussed discards, Damanaki considering ban
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
March 3, 2011
Official cat is more sustainable
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
March 3, 2011
Too few predators in famous archipelago
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
March 1, 2011
Big bucks for smart ideas
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
February 24, 2011
Baltic Sea states, stakeholders, urge more flexibility in effort management
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
February 22, 2011
New study highlights upset ecosystems in world oceans
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
February 22, 2011
Mediterranean small-scalers launch network
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
February 21, 2011
EU Council prolongs Morocco contract
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