May 14, 2021 — American consumers are familiar with the “Dolphin Safe” label on their tuna cans, and they may soon be seeing “FAD-free” labels, too.
The Blue Marine Foundation, a London-based NGO focused on marine conservation, hosted a free online interactive roundtable on “Fish Aggregating Devices (FADs) in Responsible Tuna Fisheries” on Thursday, 6 May.
December 10, 2019 — Plastic litter is a serious problem affecting the marine environment, with current estimates indicating there is anywhere from 27 to 66.7 million metric tons of plastic currently in the world’s oceans and rivers. That number now grows every year by more than 12 million metric tons, notes environmental consultancy Eunomia – and the resulting ecological, social, and economic costs are considerable.
Three-quarters of marine plastic litter (74 percent) originates from land, 9.4 percent from fishing litter, 7.8 percent from primary microplastics, and 4.9 percent from shipping litter, Eunomia reports.
March 15, 2019 — Nonprofit seafood sustainability consultancy FishWise has released a report providing suggestions for ways seafood companies can improve vessel monitoring and transparency.
The report, “Open Water: Guidance on Vessel Transparency for Seafood Companies,” recommends companies obtain an International Maritime Organization (IMO) number for each fishing vessel, be proactive in transferring data to public vessel lists, and support the implementation of international agreements related to illegal fishing, improving vessel safety and standards, and protecting workers.
The report was issued in response to growing concern for the treatment of fishing crews on the high seas, including from U.S. government agencies, FishWise CEO Tobias Aguirre said in a press release.
“In order to safeguard human rights and reduce illegal activity at sea, companies – along with NGOs and governments – must commit to initiatives which improve vessel monitoring and transparency,” Aguirre said.
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.