Saving Seafood

MEPs support further control of fleet operating outside the EU

December 7th, 2016 — The European Parliament’s Fisheries Committee on Monday approved the European Commission’s proposal to regulate the activities of the EU fleet operating outside European Union waters.

MEPs have recognized the need to take steps towards greater transparency and sustainability of fisheries. One of the measures proposed is the creation of the first public register on fleet activities in third countries, international waters and Regional Fisheries Organizations (RFOs).

Several environmental organizations welcomed the decision taken by the Committee on Fisheries of the European Parliament.

Oceana, in particular, congratulates MEPs on their support for the creation of the first public database of fishing authorizations (including IMO numbers, owners and potential catches).

“The European Parliament has today taken a significant step towards raising standards and providing pioneering rules for fishing activities outside EU waters, which accounts for 28 per cent of total EU catches. The vote of the Committee on Fisheries is a great step forward in making the European fleet to consolidate as an international model of transparency, accountability and sustainability,” explains Maria Jose Cornax, Campaign Director for Oceana in Europe.

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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