News
May 5, 2010
UK Study shows today’s fishermen must work much harder than yore
Comparing statistics going back to the 1880s, British researchers found that four times more fish were landed in UK ports 100 years ago than today. The study, published in the Nature Communications journal, also found that UK trawlers had to work 17 times as hard for the same catch as in the late 1880s, when … Continued
May 5, 2010
Earthquake in fishmeal prices
The forces of Nature have caused the price of fishmeal to skyrocket more than 85 percent in a year. A tonne of fishmeal had surged to 1,937 US dollars (€1,479) in late April. After the global financial crisis in 2008, prices went as low as $1,000 a tonne. The increase was due to a sharp … Continued
May 4, 2010
Swedish plans to lift small-scale efforts
A report from the Swedish Board of Fisheries suggests that small-scale fisheries should be under separate management. The report, commissioned by the Swedish Government, added that this could be achieved through separate catch quotas, or that some areas could be closed to large-scale fisheries. On the whole, the report pinpointed sinking profitability as a dominant … Continued
May 4, 2010
That’s how THEY do it:
A report on how fleet capacity is managed in six important non-EU fishing nations has been published, to the benefit of the European Parliament Fisheries Committee. The report, commissioned by the Fishery Committee (PECH), aimed at providing a support tool for the members, comparing instruments for fleet management in different non-EU countries with the EU … Continued
May 4, 2010
Singing Sensation: 10 Fishermen No.7 on British charts
Not exactly a boy band, more of a “buoy band”, 10 rugged Cornwall fishermen have launched a singing group career that has only just started with a one million pound recording contract. It was a scene as taken from a sentimental movie: The Fisherman’s Friends were discovered following a pub gig by the same label … Continued
May 3, 2010
NGO statement told EU to scale down
Describing the upcoming CFP reform as an “once-in-a-decade opportunity”, close to a dozen NGOs told the EU Fisheries ministers to promote a shift to “appropriately-scaled, community-based fisheries” when the new policy is taking shape. The ministers were gathered for an informal meeting in the Spanish fishing stronghold of Vigo on May 4-5. Welcoming the Commission’s … Continued
May 2, 2010
“La Coruña Declaration” says small is very good
More than 70 NGOs, fishermen’s organisations and other stakeholders have signed a declaration calling for the European Union to put small-scale coastal fisheries “at the heart of the CFP reform”. At the meeting in the Spanish Atlantic fishing port of La Coruña, NGOs and organisations of artisanal, or small-scale, coastal fishers agreed to work together … Continued
May 2, 2010
Declaration is followed by promising meeting
The first, possibly ground-breaking, steps in a future hand-in-hand walk between NGOs and small-scale fishermen were taken at a meeting in Spain in late April. The meeting in the Galician port of La Coruña, set off with a joint declaration urging EU decision-makers to set small-scale coastal fisheries “at the heart” of the upcoming reform … Continued
April 28, 2010
Sinking fisheries in Eastern Canada
Newfoundland and Labrador, a Canadian province already hit hard by the cod stock collapse in the early 1990s, has reported a sharp decline in the value of its seafood industry last year. The 22 percent decrease, to a €617 million total, was however mainly caused by the global recession and the strengthened Canadian dollar in … Continued
April 22, 2010
Norwegian institute stakes out ”fishing of the future”
Capture-based aquaculture – saving the catches in cages to be butchered and sold when most advantageous market-wise – is hailed by a Norwegian scientist as “the fishing method of the future”. “If you catch 100 tonnes of wild cod in April, you can sell 200 tonnes in December”, says Kjell Ø. Midling, a senior scientist … Continued