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ICES suspends Russia’s membership over invasion of Ukraine

April 11, 2022 — The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) has temporarily banned Russian delegates from participating in the organization’s activities until further notice in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine – a move Russia claims will backfire by hampering the council’s scientific research.

On its website, ICES said that since the beginning of the Russian invasion, member-countries “have instructed their scientists and representatives to either boycott or avoid engagement in activities where representatives of the Russian Federation are present.”

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

PETTER JOHANNESSEN: The blue whiting and herring fisheries didn’t have to lose their MSC certification. Here’s what should happen next.

December 15, 2020 — The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) announced in early December that it would suspend its certification of Atlanto-Scandic herring and blue whiting fisheries as of Dec. 30, affecting eight certificates across European fisheries. This follows the suspension of the MSC certificate on mackerel fisheries in the Northeast Atlantic in 2019.

This had been expected for quite some time and the action taken by all involved stakeholders, starting with the MSC certificate holders (i.e. the fishing industry), including other industry representatives, during the last years, was sadly not enough.

What does it mean, really?

Let us be clear: the MSC suspension does not reflect an issue related to illegal, unreported or unregulated (IUU) fishing at an individual fishery level. No one has overfished their allocated quota.

Read the full opinion piece at IntraFish

Absence of international agreement on AS herring quota-sharing risks loss of MSC certificates

October 5, 2020 — The following was released by the Marine Stewardship Council:

Four MSC-certified Atlanto-Scandian herring fisheries operating in the Northeast Atlantic are at a high risk of losing their MSC certificates on 30 December 2020, due to lack of an international agreement on how to manage catch levels between different nations.

These MSC-certified fisheries land between 600,000 to 700,000 tonnes of Atlanto-Scandian herring per year, this is around 50% of the total MSC-certified herring catches landed annually. MSC labelled herring is sold to consumers via supermarkets and fishmongers throughout Europe.

However, the absence of effective management – in particular, the quota sharing agreement between the coastal and fishing nations (EU, UK, Iceland, Faroe Islands, Norway, Russia and Greenland) – has led to the combined catch exceeding the recommended catch levels for a number of years. In 2019 fisheries collectively caught 777,165 tonnes, 32% more than the scientific advice for the year.

In 2020, following the catch quotas announced by the individual states, total Atlanto-Scandian herring catches are expected to exceed scientific advice by almost a third (32% or 168,312 tonnes).1 This means fisheries are now exceeding sustainability thresholds. If states are to align with the 2021 scientific advice from the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES) announced on 30 September, they will have to reduce their catches.

Independent assessors identified that the absence of a quota-sharing system could threaten the health of the stock and set a condition that nations must reach an agreement by 2020 for continued MSC certification. This was stipulated in 2015, giving fisheries a five-year time frame to work towards. Due to a lack of progress on this condition, the fisheries are now at risk of losing their current MSC certificates.

MSC is focused on securing and maintaining the long-term health of fish stocks. Avoiding the boom-bust cycle of overfishing and recovery is a fundamental principle of the MSC’s Standard for sustainable fishing. This is even more important in the context of climate change which is already impacting on the productivity and distribution of fish stocks.2

The annual meeting of the Northeast Atlantic Coastal States, which starts on 5 October 2020 and where international management measures are agreed, presents an opportunity for governments to solve the quota-sharing problem and ensure the long-term sustainability of the Atlanto-Scandian herring stock.

The Atlanto-Scandian stock has already experienced the impacts of over-fishing. In the 1960s, the herring stock, which had been one of the biggest in the world, crashed due to over-fishing: it took 20 years to recover.

The MSC’s Northern Europe Director, Erin Priddle, said:

“We urge the nations meeting in October to commit to a quota-sharing agreement in line with the scientific advice. Only this approach will help ensure the health of the herring stock in short, medium and long term. While individual fisheries often make great efforts to improve their sustainability, ultimately, they cannot do it alone. Migratory species like Atlanto-Scandian Herring don’t observe national boundaries, so we need international agreements to manage whole ecosystems in an adaptive, scientific way, rather than managing fish resources on a national basis.”

The independent assessors that have determined the Atlanto-Scandian herring fisheries likely suspension have also agreed that four MSC-certified blue whiting fisheries in the Northeast Atlantic should be suspended in December due to the lack of a quota sharing agreement. For the same reason MSC certified mackerel fisheries in the Northeast Atlantic were suspended in 2019 and have not yet been reinstated due to ongoing concern about how catch is managed in response to scientific data on stock levels.

Groundfish Forum forecasts only marginal lift in 2020 whitefish supply

October 17, 2019 — The supply of the big stocks of wild whitefish are set to remain stable for 2020, lifting by less than 1%, according to a forecast from the Groundfish Forum.

The forecast at the forum for the US supply of Alaska pollock for 2020 is 1.528 million metric tons, down from 1.552m in 2019. Undercurrent News previously reported the science on pollock points to possible cuts in the next couple of years.

For Russian pollock, the forum predicts a slight lift in supply for 2020, from 1.685m metric tons to 1.70m. Global pollock supply is set to be 3.44m metric tons, down marginally from 2019’s 3.45m.

For Atlantic cod, the total supply is forecast to rise very slightly, from 1.131m metric tons in 2019 to 1.132m. In June, the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) advised the cod quota in the Barents Sea for 2020 be set at a level 2% higher than its advised level for 2019 of 674,678t. At 689,672t, its 2020 advice comes in at 5% lower than the total allowable catch for 2019 set by the Norwegians and Russians, of 725,000t.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

ICES recommends slashing North Sea cod quota, NGOs respond

July 1, 2019 — The 2020 North Sea cod catch should be no more than 10,457 metric tons (MT), which is 70 percent less than this year’s total allowable catch (TAC), the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) has recommended.

ICES latest scientific advice is also 63 percent less than its own recommendation for 2019.

The intergovernmental marine science organization said the change is due to a combination of a downward revision of the spawning stock biomass (SSB) in recent years, the recruitment estimates for 2019 being substantially below the value assumed last year, and the need for a large reduction in fishing mortality to recover the stock to its maximum sustainable yield by 2021.

The United Kingdom’s other cod stocks – in the Celtic Sea, Irish Sea, and West of Scotland – are also subject to similar warnings, with the advice for a zero catch for both the West of Scotland and Celtic Sea.

Following these latest recommendations, E.U. fishing ministers have again come under fire from the NGO community for failing to support the recovery of vulnerable stocks.

“This follows years of policy decisions that put short term political interests over long-term economic and environmental sustainability. Sadly, this was entirely predictable and preventable; failing to follow the scientific advice makes announcements like this inevitable,” Jonny Hughes, U.K. officer for The Pew Trusts’ Ending Overfishing in Northwestern Europe campaign, said.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Five Questions With: Kevin Stokesbury

March 27, 2019 — Kevin Stokesbury, professor of fisheries oceanography at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth’s School for Marine Science & Technology, was chosen for a service award from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea last month. The council, in Denmark, recognized the Stokesbury for his work in restoring scallop stocks in the region. He served as chair of the ICES Scallop Assessment Working Group for five years.

PBN: Where are we in terms of scallop stocks in New England now as opposed to say, 10 and 20 years ago?

STOKESBURY: The scallop stocks of New England are a fisheries success story. For 2018, the stock is estimated at 482 million pounds … with a projected harvest of about 63 million pounds. For the last 10 years the average landings were 50 million pounds valued at $460 million; for the last 20 years the average landings were 46 million pounds valued at $345 million; and from 1970 to 1996 the average landings were 20 million pounds valued at $81 million, based on National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data.

This success is the result of nature providing the right conditions for the scallops to produce large numbers of offspring; scientists and the fishing industry working together to develop new ways to document the number of scallops – their distribution, size and biomass – and agencies being open to new ideas on rotational management and flexible enough to act on the new scientific data.

The results have been a sustainable fishery with reduced environmental impact and economic prosperity.

PBN: One of the things you have been credited with is partnering with fishermen, getting their buy-in to gather information to manage scallop stocks. How would you describe that process?

STOKESBURY: The fishing industry originally approached [UMass Dartmouth professor Brian] Rothschild for help determining the abundance of scallops within the closed areas of Georges Bank. Rothschild had the ability to bring all the different agencies, academics and fishing groups together. The first cooperative dredge survey had already been completed when I came onboard in 1998.

Read the full story at Providence Business News

Report: UK, Denmark, Ireland quotas well in excess of scientific advice

February 11, 2019 — European Union member states are predicted to fish Northeast Atlantic stocks as much as 312,000 metric tons (MT) above the scientific advice in 2019, according to a new report published by charitable think-tank New Economics Foundation (NEF).

The latest edition of NEF’s annual “Landing the Blame” report states of the 120 total allowable catch (TAC) decisions made at the December 2018 AGRIFISH Council negotiations, 55 TACs or 46 percent were set above the advice of scientific bodies, predominantly the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES).

“This is continuing the trend of permitting overfishing in E.U. waters with Northeast Atlantic TACs set 16 percent above scientific advice on average – a big increase from the 2018 TACs (9 percent),” the report said. “The earlier negotiations for the 2019 Baltic and deep sea TACs were also set above scientific advice, with five out of 10 and eight out of 12 TACs exceeding advice, respectively.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Europêche hits back at Pew response

November 23, 2015 — In a further letter to Pew, Javier Garat, President of Europêche and Pim Vasser, President of EAPO, said: “It is disappointing that your response fails to address the issues that we have raised. We drew attention to the startling divergence between the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES) view and Pew’s claims about fishing pressure and the state of the stocks off North Western Europe.”

Just last week an initial open letter to Pew, Europêche accused the report of making the assertion that fishing in pursuit of food and profit off North West Europe in recent decades has dramatically expanded.

Read the full story at World Fishing & Aquaculture

EU fishing sector accuses Pew of knowingly publishing misinformation

November 19, 2015 — The following is an excerpt from a story originally published on November 18 by Undercurrent News:

European fisheries industry body Europeche has issued an open letter to Pew Charitable Trusts, warning that statements which are “demonstrably untrue and contrary to scientific opinion” can cause damage.

Javier Garat, Europeche president, pointed to the Pew report ‘Turning the Tide: Ending

Overfishing in North Western Europe’ as containing such misleading inofrmation.

The report makes the assertion that:

  • Fishing in recent decades, in pursuit of food and profit, off North West Europe has dramatically expanded
  • Calls by scientists and environmentalists to reduce fishing pressure have been ignored
  • Many fish stocks collapsed throughout the region
  • The reformed CFP should prove a successful first step in restoring and maintaining the health of the fisheries and fish stocks

The unambiguous view of the scientific community has been clearly stated, most recently at the State of the Stocks Seminar in Brussels, said Garat, quoting Eskild Kirkegaard, chair of the ICES advisory committee:

“Over the last ten to fifteen years, we have seen a general decline in fishing mortality in the Northeast Atlantic and the Baltic Sea. 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.”

Read the full story at Undercurrent News 

Harmful algal blooms and climate change: Preparing to forecast the future

October 26, 2015 — Marine scientists attending an international workshop warned that the future may bring more harmful algal blooms (HABs) that threaten wildlife and the economy, and called for changes in research priorities to better forecast these long-term trends.

The findings of the international workshop on HABs and climate Change were published Friday in the journal Harmful Algae. The workshop was organized under the auspices of the North Pacific Marine Science Organization (PICES) and the Global Ecology and Oceanography of Harmful Algal Blooms (GEOHAB) and endorsed by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES). The central findings were that while there are reasons to expect HABs to increase with climate change, poor scientific understanding seriously limits forecasts, and current research strategies will not likely improve this capacity.

Empirical observations suggest cause for grave concern. Northward expansion of phytoplankton species, wider seasonal windows for HAB development, and an increasing prevalence of HABs worldwide all indicate a future with greater problems.

The impacts of algal blooms are extensive. Although phytoplankton blooms normally fuel productive ecosystems, some blooms create very low oxygen concentrations in bottom waters, killing or driving out marine fish or benthic organisms. Others produce potent neurotoxins that threaten ecosystems and human health.

Read the full story at EurekAlert

 

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