Saving Seafood

Illegal bottom trawling widespread inside Mediterranean marine protected areas

November 23, 2022 — The Mediterranean Sea isn’t the source of plenty it once was. It now contains some of the most ecologically degraded marine areas in the world, and has been the site of dead zones and fish stock collapses in recent decades. Populations of countless species are in decline, including sharks, seagrasses and marine mammals. The sea is “on the verge of ‘burn out,’” WWF has declared.

Overfishing and destructive fishing practices, including bottom trawling, are part of the problem. Bottom trawlers drag fishing nets weighted down with heavy “doors,” and they often damage the seabed, destroying coral and sponge habitats, and catch unintended species at a high rate. Conservationists have pushed the creation of marine protected areas (MPAs) and no-trawl zones, but these are only effective if managed and regulated well, and reports in recent years have indicated that, in the Mediterranean, this isn’t the case.

Now the Med Sea Alliance (MSA), an umbrella group of NGOs and environmental advocates, has launched an “atlas” showing widespread illegal bottom trawling in the Mediterranean. The atlas, an interactive online map, shows thousands of days of apparent bottom-trawling activity in areas where it is banned, in 2020 and 2021. The atlas uses data from transponders that fishing vessels carry, as well as 169 confirmed infractions based on coast guard records and media reports.

“It’s the first time such an atlas [has been] released,” Anne Rémy, MSA’s movement coordinator, told Mongabay. “It can appear like a very scientific map, but behind this map, you have a very interesting story about the lack of enforcement and transparency in the Med, which is the most overfished sea in the world.”

Rémy stressed that the marine areas in question were especially ecologically sensitive.

“We are seeing the worst cases that could happen. Because it’s not bottom trawling [just] anywhere, it’s bottom trawling in areas which should really be protected,” she said.

Read the full article at Mongabay

The Sonar Challenge: Seapix drills down

January 10, 2022 — About 10 years ago, iXblue — a French tech company headquartered on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea — identified fisheries as a potential market and began asking fishermen what they wanted in a sonar.

“We found that fishermen want two things,” says Christophe Corbières, Fishery sales developer at iXblue. “They want to know the volume of the target shoal, and they want to be able to discriminate species.”

To that end, iXblue designed the Seapix sonar system, a pricey but top of the line tool for fishermen who want to have a good idea what they’re setting their nets on. The system begins with a Mills Cross transducer with 256 beams on each axis.

“It looks ahead and the side 120 degrees,” says Corbières. “We are using the same transducer geometry that astronomers use to listen to deep space, adapted for the sea.” iXblue made the transducer 48 centimeters in diameter, so it could fit the housing size of comparable transducers.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Atlantic, North Sea, Mediterranean, and Black Sea fishing opportunities agreed to for 2021

December 17, 2020 — Agreements on next year’s catch limits for more than 200 commercial fish stocks in the Atlantic, North Sea, Mediterranean, and the Black Sea have been reached by European Union fisheries ministers following two days of intense negotiation at the annual Agrifish Council meeting.

As more than 100 of the stocks in the Atlantic and North Sea have historically been co-managed with the United Kingdom, and given the ongoing E.U.-U.K. negotiations on their future relationship, ministers agreed to set provisional quotas for the fish stocks shared with Britain.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Layers of regulations to protect European seas ‘not working,’ audit finds

December 2, 2020 — Europe is failing to protect its oceans, despite having policies in place to safeguard its marine environment, according to a report published by the European Court of Auditors (ECA) on Nov. 26.

The ECA, an independent institution within the European Union (EU), looked at marine protection efforts between 2018 and 2020 to see if existing policies within the EU framework were addressing key pressures on marine biodiversity and habitats. What the report ultimately found was that the EU had not taken sufficient action to restore its ailing seas, or to keep fishing at sustainable levels, especially in the Mediterranean.

“It’s pretty grim,” a member of the audit team told Mongabay in an interview. “Europe does have a framework in place, but what is there isn’t working.”

There is an intricate web of rules, laws and directives to manage the EU’s marine environment, including the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), designed to regulate fishing fleets and conserve fish stocks; the Birds and Habitats Directives (BHDs), which aim to protect threatened species and habitats through a network of protected areas; and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) that provides an overarching marine policy meant to integrate fishing and environmental regulations. While these policies appear adequate, they’re not being put into practice, according to the report.

“It all looks great on paper,” the auditor said. “It all looks very sensible, but the reality is that when you try to apply [them] there are gaps.”

In some instances, policies even seem to be at odds with each other. For example, many EU member states have established marine protected areas (MPAs) in their territorial waters as per the conservation commitments set out in the MSFD and the BHDs, which allows them to impose fishing restrictions on vessels owned and operated by their own citizens. However, the CFP gives EU member states the right to fish in other member states’ waters, even within other countries’ MPAs. To ban other EU members from fishing within these MPAs, nations would need to engage in multilateral discussions under the CFP, a process that could take many years.

Read the full story at Mongabay

Worldwide slowdown in fishing unlikely to save rare species

June 30, 2020 — Commercial fishing taking place worldwide has dipped since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, but scientists and conservation experts say it’s unclear if the slowdown will help endangered species of marine life recover.

Hours logged by fishermen at sea fell by nearly 10% around the world after the March 11 declaration of a pandemic, and in some hard-hit countries such as China, fishing completely stopped. The fishing decline has spurred questions about food security, ocean management and global trade.

As countries begin to resume fishing, new questions are emerging about whether an extended fishing slowdown could help rare ocean animals, such as the North Atlantic right whale. The whale numbers only about 400 and is vulnerable to fatal entanglement in fishing gear.

Less fishing could also help jeopardized fish stocks of the Mediterranean Sea, which is home to the overfished Atlantic bluefin tuna. And many rare species are vulnerable to accidental catch, called bycatch, in fishing gear.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

Med countries commit to fight illegal fishing, preserve ecosystems

November 12, 2019 — The General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) — under the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization — has moved to increase fisheries transparency, protect threatened corals, and preserve fish breeding grounds.

The enforcement of a package of measures will be vital to help revert the “overfishing crisis” of this sea, said NGO Oceana, since they will create areas where fish can reproduce safely and will hinder illegal fishing.

“Mediterranean countries have taken an important step to restore the abundance of this sea and protect some of its most vulnerable wildlife. Oceana urges them now to enforce these decisions and adopt robust compliance systems including sanctions, so that these decisions are truly effective. GFCM’s credibility will be at stake as long as the Mediterranean remains the world’s most overexploited sea,” said Pascale Moehrle, executive director for Oceana Europe.

Oceana particularly welcomed commitments to fight illegal fishing, protect corals and fish habitats, and comply with “fisheries restricted areas”, or FRAs.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

NGO outcry as latest EU report shows little improvement in ending overfishing

April 12, 2019 — Environmental NGOs have decried a new European Commission report, claiming it shows species such as sardine, hake, and cod could suffer commercial extinctions in European waters in the short term.

The 2019 report by the Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF) led Oceana to state that overfishing is “plaguing EU seas”. Around 40% of Atlantic stocks and 87% of Mediterranean ones are found to be fished unsustainably, it said.

“As the 2020 deadline for ending overfishing is fast approaching, scientists confirm, with just months to go, the EU countries are still nowhere near reaching the legal obligation of the common fisheries policy (CFP).”

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

The top seafood M&A stories of 2018

December 28, 2018 — Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) is a topic that we’ve really developed our coverage of in the past couple of years, having seen the strong interest from our readers in the developing deals in what is surely one of the world’s most dynamic sectors.

Through the creation of our seafood M&A report in 2017 we developed a number of excellent sources, thanks to whom our coverage has come on leaps and bounds, as can be seen from the stories below, which were among our most-read of the year.

As mentioned in my rundown of our most-read retail and foodservice stories of 2018, two of the biggest stories of the year concerned M&A; one rumored, and one done deal.

In July, multiple sources told our Matilde Mereghetti that US broadline distributor Sysco Corporation was eyeing a deal for Italy’s largest seafood importer, MARR. The deal, if it goes ahead, would add a strong southern European component to Sysco’s business, sources said.

Sysco, based in Houston, Texas, moved into Europe in 2016, announcing a $3.1 billion acquisition for UK-based Brake Bros, which had previously snapped up France’s Davigel.

Sysco representatives had even visited Rimini-based MARR earlier in the year, according to Undercurrent News sources. The sources were not sure whether negotiations were going ahead or, if so, at what stage they were at. This may be one to keep an eye out for in 2019. MARR, however, recently denied there is a plan to sell.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

UN, EU body’s efforts to protect Mediterranean criticized

October 31, 2018 — The General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) has adopted 11 recommendations in a bid to address the critical situation of stocks in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, it has said.

The regional fisheries management organization, created under both the EU and the United Nations, took the decisions at its 42nd session, held at the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) headquarters in Rome, Italy.

“After a year of continuous efforts, all countries involved have reached, for the first time, a consensus on all new proposals presented,” it said. “These binding decisions relate in particular to multi-annual management plans for trawl fisheries in the Levant, the Ionian Sea and the Strait of Sicily, conservation measures for sharks and rays, a multiannual management plan for European eel in the Mediterranean, and further emergency measures for small pelagic stocks in the Adriatic Sea.”

Moreover, important decisions towards improving monitoring control and surveillance have been adopted, such as international joint inspection and surveillance schemes outside the waters under national jurisdiction in the Strait of Sicily and the Adriatic Sea, the marking of fishing gear, and access to information and data related to monitoring, control and surveillance, it said.

In light of the growing focus on non-indigenous species, that are transforming Mediterranean and Black Sea ecosystems, the body also agreed on the creation of a monitoring network for these species — a first for the region — as well as on regional research programs for blue crab in the Mediterranean and for rapa whelk in the Black Sea.

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