Saving Seafood

EU fisheries chief outlines first multi-annual management plan for the Mediterranean

March 9, 2017 — European Union Commissioner for Environment, Fisheries and Maritime Affairs, Karmenu Vella, has presented a multi-annual plan for small pelagic fish stocks in the Adriatic Sea.

The proposal, which covers four different small pelagic stocks but is focused on anchovy and sardine – the most commercially valuable fishery – is the third multi-annual plan that the European Commission (EC) is putting forward since the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). It is also the first ever in the Mediterranean and if fully implemented has the potential to increase stocks by 20 percent.

This will bring tangible improvements in the working conditions for fishermen, with an expected increase in salary of approximately five percent and profits of around 10 percent.

According to the EC, the plan marks a milestone in its approach to fisheries management, and shows that long-term viability of fisheries can still be made possible in a sea basin in which 93 percent of the fish stocks are assessed as over-exploited.

Without this plan, anchovy and sardine stocks would most likely collapse between 2020 and 2030, said Vella.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

EU removes IUU yellow cards for two countries

January 24, 2017 — The European Commission (EC) has lifted the so-called illegal fishing “yellow cards” that had been placed on Curacao and the Solomon Islands, recognizing the significant progress both countries have made in combating illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

“This is a good day for Curacao and Solomon Islands, and good news for sustainable fisheries around the globe. Countries worldwide have a shared duty to fight illegal fishing, protect law-abiding fishermen, and keep our oceans healthy. I encourage others to join the European Union in this fight and contribute to better ocean governance,” said European Union Commissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Karmenu Vella.

Under the IUU Regulation, the E.C. warned Curacao in November 2013 and the Solomon Islands in December 2014 that they were not doing enough against IUU fishing. Since then, both countries have embarked on a series of reforms to bring their fisheries legal and administrative frameworks in line with international law, and are now equipped to tackle illegal fishing effectively.

Working closely with the E.C., they have strengthened their sanctioning system, and have improved monitoring and control of their fleets.

The IUU Regulation is the E.U.’s main tool in the fight against illegal fishing. It encourages countries to work with the E.C. to improve their fisheries governance and retain access to E.U. markets.

The E.C. estimates that the global value of IUU fishing is approximately EUR 10 billion (USD 10.6 billion) per year, equating to as much as 15 percent of catches worldwide.

Curacao and the Solomon Islands join a growing list of countries that have reformed their fisheries governance systems following a warning by the E.U., including Sri Lanka, Ghana, and the Philippines.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Brussels tightens controls on EU fishing fleet

February 13, 2017 — Updates to the EU’s fleet register is to be made available in real time following the adoption of a new regulation by the European Commission (EC).

The regulation makes it easier for EU member states to update the fleet register, while giving the Commission the necessary tools to crosscheck the data that member states submit.

All fishing vessels flying the flag of a EU member state must be registered. The EU Fleet Register database is managed by the EC and is a compilation of information on the EU fleets.

The Commission said the register is a necessary tool to manage the balance between fishing capacity and opportunities in line with the EU Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), as well as being a useful instrument for fleet monitoring and control.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource.com

Time at sea limits canned for North Sea cod fishermen

November 23, 2016 — North Sea cod fishermen will be able to land every catch – not just cod – more easily following a decision by European Parliament to remove limits on the number of days a vessel can spend in a fishing area.

An update to European Commission (EC) Council Regulation No. 1342/2008 to establish a long-term plan for cod stocks and the fisheries exploiting those stocks in the Kattegat, North Sea, the Skagerrak and eastern Channel, west of Scotland and the Irish Sea, and fisheries exploiting those stocks makes it fully compatible with the new Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) by applying the obligation to land all catches in full.

MEPs removed the rule for calculating fishing effort – i.e. power of each vessel in kW plus the number of days it is present within a given area – as this led fishermen to discard unwanted catches by hampering further adaptation of fishing patterns, such as the choice of area and gear.

Under the new rule, fishermen will face no obstacles to landing all their catches as they will no longer be subject to time limits.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

European Union agrees on Mediterranean stock recovery strategy

June 9, 2016 — The 40th annual session of the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) drew to a successful close with agreement on a raft of measures aimed at reversing the worrying trend of declining fish stocks in the region.

Decisions taken at the meeting in Malta are in line with the European Commission’s (EC’s) strategy to improve the state of the Mediterranean fish stocks and the economic prospects of the fishing industry.

EU Fisheries Commissioner Karmenu Vella expressed his deep satisfaction with the outcome, which “ushers in a new era of action to help fish stocks recover and fishing communities thrive.”

He said, “This year’s GFCM annual session was a truly historic meeting. After the troubling diagnosis concerning the future of Mediterranean fish stocks and the fishing economy, we now started to take corrective action. I am convinced that the steps agreed will usher in a new era of action that will help fish stocks recover and fishing communities thrive. The progress made at GFCM was a significant boost to the European Commission’s #MedFish4Ever campaign.”

Read the full story at SeafoodSource.com

NGOs applaud new EU measure to combat illegal fishing

January 22, 2016 — Non governmental organizations Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF), Oceana and WWF welcome a new European Commission (EC) requirement that all EU fishing vessels, and foreign vessels fishing in EU waters, need to have unique vessel numbers from construction to disposal.

The measure will affect up to 8,205 European vessels.

The decision is a key reform that helps close a decades-old loophole allowing fishing vessels around the world to evade scrutiny, fueling illegal fishing.

EJF’s Executive Director Steve Trent said, “This is a powerful signal by the EU that fisheries must become more transparent. Sometimes the simplest reforms can have profound impacts, and that is the case here.

“It is ridiculous that planes, cars and even European cows have unique numbers to enable lifetime tracking, but fishing vessels haven’t. This has allowed unscrupulous operators to fish illegally in one country and then swiftly change identity and nationality and do the same elsewhere.”

Until recently, a global scheme operated by the International Maritime Organisation(IMO) that assigned unique numbers to vessels for their entire lives specifically excluded fishing vessels.

Read the full story at FIS

The European Commission sees the light

November 16, 2015 — On Tuesday November 10, the Director General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Mr.  João Aguiar Machado announced that the European Commission had dropped its proposal to ban all kinds of drift nets throughout EU waters. Addressing the Fisheries Committee of the European Parliament, DG Aguiar Machado stated that the regulation of drift nets would rather be addressed through regionalisation and the framework proposal on technical measures due to be published in early 2016.

Small scale fishers across Europe had been dismayed by the former Commissioner Damanaki’s announcement in May 2014 that she was determined to “eradicate once and for all” fishing with drift nets in European waters, with a ban to be implemented on January 1 2015.

Damanaki’s decision was backed by an impact assessment that had reached the conclusion, that due to signs that the number of vessels partaking in driftnet fishing had seen a decrease, ‘the overall socio-economic impact of the total ban is therefore considered irrelevant’. The impact assessment by its own admission, was inherently flawed, noting it had “not been possible to collect accurate landings data from driftnet fisheries apart from Italy and UK, which made it almost impossible to identify the economic importance of the gear at the European level.”

Read the full story at Low Impact Fishers of Europe

 

Fishing Quotas Proposed for Atlantic and North Sea

November 11, 2015 — The Commission proposes to maintain or increase the fish quotas for 35 stocks, and reduce catches for 28 stocks on the basis of the scientific advice received.

Some of the stocks facing increases include megrim in the North Sea and West of Scotland and horse mackerel in Northern Spain.

Due to a lack of improvement, stocks with cuts include Celtic Sea and English Channel cod and haddock by up to almost 30 per cent and 27 per cent respectively.

The Irish Sea sole fishery has a huge proposed cut of 100 per cent which would effectively close the fishery, said Europêche.

The Commission has also proposed a complete ban on the fishing of sea bass from 1 January to 30 June and a limitation to 1000kg per vessel per month in some areas only from 1 July.

Quota Top Ups

The EC is also proposing an increase in fishing opportunities to help fishermen in the transition to the new obligation to land all catches. This is the first time the Commission proposes so-called quota “top ups” for all the fisheries under the landing obligation as of 2016.

This extra quota aims to compensate fishermen for the extra fish they will have to land. On the basis of scientific advice to be received by mid-November the Commission will, later in the month, propose the catch increase including all the quantities that need to be landed.

Read the full story at The Fish Site

ICES: POSITIVE STATE OF FISH STOCKS PRESENTED TO EUROPEAN COMMISSION

July 14, 2015 — COPENHAGEN, Den. —The following was released by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES):

Today, the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) delivered an overview of the status of a host of fish and shellfish stocks across the Northeast Atlantic for which the organization has provided advice on this year.

The Chair of ICES Advisory Committee, Eskild Kirkegaard, presented the information at a seminar in Brussels organized by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (DG MARE). Encompassing around 150 stocks, the general picture is of a reduction in the exploitation level in accordance with the advice provided by ICES and in line with management objectives for sustainable fisheries.

“Over the last ten to fifteen years, we have seen a general decline in fishing mortality in the Northeast Atlantic and the Baltic Sea,” explained Kirkegaard. “The stocks have reacted positively to the reduced exploitation and we’re observing growing trends in stock sizes for most of the commercially important stocks.”

For the majority of stocks, it has been observed that fishing mortality has decreased to a level consistent with Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) – meaning levels that are not only sustainable but will also deliver high long term yields.

An example of this trend is reflected in the status of North Sea cod for which advice was recently issued, where a downturn in fishing mortality and an upturn in Spawning Stock Biomass (SSB) was noted. North Sea plaice, which is now at record high levels is a comparable example.

The current stock and exploitation status of all ICES stocks can be viewed on the ICES website.