Saving Seafood

Scottish minister calls for removal of link between seafood trade and access to waters

December 12, 2018 — Scotland Fisheries Secretary Fergus Ewing has written to the U.K. government raising serious concerns about the current Brexit Withdrawal Agreement’s failure to ensure tariff-free access to European markets for Scotland’s seafood exports.

Ewing warned Environment Secretary Michael Gove that non-tariff barriers like customs delays at ports could be catastrophic for an industry that relies on frictionless passage across borders, particularly for fresh and live products.

Ewing wrote that despite the Prime Minister Theresa May’s claims, a direct link between seafood trade and access to waters has been conceded, allowing for exclusion of fisheries and aquaculture from tariff-free access through a temporary customs union, if a fisheries agreement acceptable to the European Union cannot be achieved.

“Worse still, aquaculture has been included in this linkage despite having no connection to access to waters or quota,” Ewing wrote. “Salmon farming alone was the [United Kingdom’s] largest food export in 2017. Its inclusion is profoundly disturbing, risking the imposition of tariffs, which will inevitably increase the cost of exports, and perhaps even more importantly the spectre of non-tariff barriers hangs over Scottish seafood exports, which absolutely rely on frictionless passage across borders.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

European industry targets doubling of aquaculture production by 2030

December 5, 2018 — The Federation of European Aquaculture Producers (FEAP) has set a production target of 4.5 million metric tons in seafood from EU aquaculture by 2030; nearly double the current volume of 2.3m metric tons.

Speaking at the FEAP conference in Brussels on Nov. 29, president Marco Gilmozzi said that a boost in global aquaculture production will be necessary to meet the growing demand for sustainably-sourced protein within Europe.

“We need to be ambitious,” Gilmozzi said. “Aquaculture, if well-managed, is a fully-sustainable, globally competitive sector.”

With the global population set to rise to 9.8 billion by 2050, and many of the world’s fisheries already at maximum sustainable yield, FEAP predicts that farmed seafood will grow to represent more than two-thirds of the world’s consumed seafood by this date.

According to Gilmozzi, who is also the general manager of COSA fish farm in Tuscany, Italy, this means there are opportunities for European aquaculture to significantly grow its market share, as it currently only accounts for 25% of all European seafood production.

“To achieve our targets, we just need institutions to reduce bureaucracy and licensing times, and to realize a fair level playing field,” the FEAP president said.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Could Oysters Ease Trade Tensions With U.S.? European Leaders Hope So

November 14, 2018 — BRUSSELS — The United States and Europe may one day put aside their differences on trade, eliminate tariffs on industrial goods and work together to rein in their common economic adversary, China.

But for Cecilia Malmstrom, the European trade commissioner, the most urgent task is to produce quick results, however humble, that will keep an impatient President Trump from imposing even more drastic penalties on European imports than the tariffs his administration has already levied.

So when Ms. Malmstrom meets in Washington on Wednesday with her American counterpart, Robert E. Lighthizer, she will count it as a substantial victory if she can lower the barriers hindering one bit of trans-Atlantic commerce: oysters.

The United States and Europe have long banned the importing of each other’s shellfish. But a deal to ease trade on that front has been in the works for several years and could be dressed up by both sides as a success that helps smooth relations with the White House.

Shellfish may seem like an odd focus for negotiators, but exports from the United States are worth about $1.7 billion a year. And international trade in clams, mussels, oysters and scallops — all of which are shipped live by air — is growing.

The emphasis on mollusks also illustrates a strategy that officials in Brussels hope will prevent Mr. Trump from acting on a threat to impose steep tariffs on European cars, a potentially devastating blow to the European economy.

Read the full story at The New York Times

 

EU Commission proposes 2019 TACs for Atlantic, North Sea

November 9, 2018 — The European Commission has proposed new 2019 quotas for 89 separate stocks in the east Atlantic and North Sea.

The new quotas will see total allowable catch (TAC) increased or maintained for 62 stocks, while 22 stocks have seen a decrease in TAC — five of which have a proposed TAC of zero, indicating that the reduced stocks should no longer be targeted at all.

Some of the biggest quota gains belonged to North Atlantic haddock, which had a proposed TAC of 10,469 metric tons, up 103% from 2018; horse mackerel off the west coast of Spain, with a proposed quota of 94,017t, up 69%; and Norwegian lobster west of Sweden, up 65% to a new TAC of 19,424t.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Over 150 scientists warn of Mediterranean ‘overfishing crisis’

September 24, 2018 — More than 150 international scientists have signed NGO Oceana’s “Mediterranean Statement” urging the EU and its member states to end what it calls an environmental crisis in the Mediterranean, it said.

It cited a recent report from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) calling it the world’s most overfished sea.

“This environmental crisis is not just a warning – it’s the harsh reality of the Mediterranean Sea. Europe has for decades turned a blind eye to this situation, and this passive stance has brought us today to almost the point of no return,” said Lasse Gustavsson, executive director of Oceana in Europe.

“The EU must curb overfishing to avoid the worst-case scenario — the collapse of fish stocks — by adopting a science-based management plan in the western Mediterranean,” he said.

Overfishing in the Mediterranean affects around 90% of evaluated fish stocks, with average exploitation rates exceeding more than double the recommended sustainable levels, said Oceana, citing the EU’s own Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Scallop row: UK and French fishermen strike a deal

September 18, 2018 — The agreement, starting on Tuesday, will see larger British boats withdrawing in return for greater fishing rights elsewhere.

In August, boats collided and fishermen threw stones at each other as the French accused UK boats of depleting scallop stocks.

British fishermen said they were legally entitled to fish there.

Under the terms of the new deal, UK scallop dredgers over 15m long will leave the scallop beds off the coast of Normandy from midnight for six weeks.

In return, France will transfer fishing rights for scallops in areas such as the Irish Sea.

Smaller British boats are not restricted under the deal and can continue to fish in the Bay of Seine, where the row broke out.

Fisheries minister George Eustice said: “I commend the UK fishing industry for its patience throughout negotiations and welcome this pragmatic outcome.

Read the full story at BBC News

No end to “scallop war” between France and the UK

September 12, 2018 — Relations between France and the United Kingdom have been less than cordial over the past few weeks as the U.K.’s under-15-meter scallop fleet has exercised its right to fish in French waters.

French scallop fishermen, who are currently banned from taking any scallops themselves until the scallop breeding season ends, clashed with their European counterparts in a series of dangerously aggressive high-seas manoeuvres caught on camera.

The fracas arose because, under the terms of the E.U. Common Fisheries Policy, fishing fleets from any member state have equal access to E.U. waters. However, individual countries can limit access to E.U. fleets within 12 nautical miles of their own coastlines. This means that U.K. boats can fish for scallops year-round in the Baie de Seine area off the north coast of France, despite French law preventing its own fleet from fishing between 15 May and 1 October to conserve stocks.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

 

Climate change conflicts are here – and ‘scallop wars’ are just the beginning

September 11, 2018 — As the planet warms, species are moving further north to climate zones which are closer in temperature to what they originally evolved in. The oceans have absorbed most of this temperature increase, and so many marine species, including commercially fished scallops, are under particular stress to migrate northwards to cooler waters.

In the face of this disruption, legal boundaries for fishing fleets could become increasingly irrelevant. As the fish stocks they once contained move out, conflict is likely to arise between countries exploiting neighbouring fishing grounds.

As a result, the ongoing “scallop war“, which has seen tense physical confrontations between French and British fishers over access to these prized molluscs, may be a taste of worse to come.

The habitat ranges and migration patterns of commercial species in the ocean have been carefully studied throughout history, so that fishing fleets can exploit them more efficiently. This understanding has informed the division of fishing grounds according to who has the right to harvest them.

French scallop fishers were incensed over their British counterparts’ alleged pillaging of scallop stocks, as smaller British boats aren’t bound by a French law that prohibits dredging in the Baie de Seine from October 1 through May 15, to allow scallop populations to recover.

While on the surface it might seem that these skirmishes are anchored to specific circumstances – potentially inflamed by existing tensions around Brexit – they highlight the enormous difficulties in clearly mapping and enforcing legal boundaries around natural habitats that are changing rapidly.

Read the full story at PHYS.org

UK-France scallop skirmish settled, subject to compensation for UK boats

September 10, 2018 — The UK and French governments have reached an agreement over scallop fishing in the eastern English Channel, with French conservation measures designed to protect the shellfish extending to UK vessels.

In a joint statement from both governments, supported by UK fisheries minister George Eustice, it was announced the previous conservation agreement involving the UK 15-meter-and-over fleet would be renewed.

In addition, there is agreement in principle for UK under-15m vessels to be included in the deal. This is subject to a “reasonable compensation package”, the details of which are set to be defined in Paris on Sept. 7.

In the meantime, there is a voluntary agreement for all UK vessels to respect the French closure period in the Baie de Seine, the statement said.

The long-running dispute in the channel particularly concerns the scallop-rich Baie, in which French fishers are prevented from harvesting due to domestic environmental laws.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

French, UK fishermen to seek scallops deal after sea skirmishes

September 4, 2018 — Fishing industry officials from France and Britain will try to strike a new deal on dredging for scallops next week following violent skirmishes in the Channel, authorities said on Friday.

On Tuesday, French vessels rammed British trawlers off the coast of Normandy, hurling projectiles and insults in a dispute which erupted after a previous agreement broke down.

French fishermen accuse the British of unfairly catching scallops in the Baie de Seine in the summer months when French boats are banned from doing so under rules imposed by the Paris government to conserve stocks of the shellfish.

French Agriculture Minister Stephane Travert told Europe 1 radio he had discussed the issue with a British minister on Thursday night and that the industry representatives would meet next week to work out an agreement.

“We both condemn the violent acts and we want to return to a spirit of responsibility,” Travert said.

Travert said he had asked British fisheries minister George Eustace to ensure UK vessels do not sail south of the Barfleur-Antifer line, the scene of this week’s clashes.

The industry representatives would meet in London on Wednesday and French government officials would also attend, said Dimitri Rogoff, who heads the Normandy fishing association.

Read the full story at Reuters