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Oceana Applauds U.S./E.U. Pact to Combat Pirate Fishing |
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WASHINGTON – Oceana, the largest international advocacy
group working solely to protect the world’s oceans, issued the
following statement from Dr. Michael Hirshfield, chief scientist and
senior vice president for North America, in response to today’s
announcement by Dr. Jane Lubchenco, United States Under Secretary of
Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and NOAA Administrator, and Maria
Damanaki, European Union Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and
Fisheries, of their signing of a historic agreement to combat the global
problem of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing:
"Oceana applauds today’s announcement that the U.S. and E.U. are planning to combat pirate fishing worldwide by committing real resources towards enforcement. As leading fishing nations, the U.S. and E.U. members have an obligation to keep illegal fish out of the world market. If carried out, this agreement could significantly improve the declining state of the world’s oceans. IUU fishing hurts our oceans and honest fishermen, and undermines every effort to protect our oceans through responsibly managed fisheries. Pirate fishers do not comply with safety measures, do not use legal fishing gear, do not follow fisheries management regulations, and do not comply with regulations on quotas, fishing areas, closed seasons or prohibited species. The U.S. also needs to establish a seafood traceability system similar to what is already in place in the E.U. Passing legislation pending in the Senate that deals with illegal fishing and seafood fraud would be a great first step.” Read the complete story from Oceana
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Monterey Bay's historic "wetfish" industry is under attack by extremist groups who claim overfishing is occurring. Touting studies with faulty calculations, activists are lobbying federal regulators to massively limit fishing, if not ban these fisheries outright. Apparently the facts don’t matter to groups with an anti-fishing agenda
