Saving Seafood

Queen’s Speech confirms UK plans to control access to waters, set own quotas

June 22, 2017 — The UK will take control of access to its waters and setting quotas once it has left the European Union, according to the Queen’s Speech.

In the speech, delivered by Queen Elizabeth II in parliament on June 21, beleaguered prime minister Theresa May outlined a fisheries bill as part of legislation she plans to push through a hung parliament.

The aim of the fisheries bill is to “protect access to UK waters which are so important to Scottish fishermen” as it comes out of the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), according to the document.

It will be “complemented by legislation to ensure that the United Kingdom makes a success of Brexit, establishing new national policies on […] fisheries”.

This will “enable the UK to set our own quotas once we have left the EU, which will both help ensure prosperity for a new generation of fishermen as well as preserve and increase fish stocks”.

There has been concern from the fisheries sector that access to UK waters could be “traded away” in negotiations.

Barrie Deas, chief executive of the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organizations, said the fisheries bill is no guarantee this won’t happen.

“This [the bill] provides for a legal framework for UK fisheries post-Brexit. It is not the negotiations, where all that needs to be said on fisheries is that the UK will, by default, no longer be subject to the provisions of the CFP, including the principle of equal access to a common resource,” he told Undercurrent News.

“There will be subsequent discussions on the form of international agreements between the UK and the EU on the management of shared stocks, access arrangements and quota shares and it will be important that the commitments made by ministers to the UK industry are secured in full,” he said.

Responding to the detail of the speech, Bertie Armstrong, chief executive of the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation, welcomed the direct mention of its fishermen.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Scottish Conservatives Want Fishing Protected as Part of Brexit

June 14, 2017 — Scotland’s Conservatives want the fishing industry to be protected in any deal that Britain negotiates to leave the European Union after winning seats in fishing areas in last week’s national election.

Scottish party leader Ruth Davidson made this clear at a meeting with Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May, who lost her parliamentary majority in Britain’s June 8 vote, a spokesman for the party said on Wednesday.

“Fishing is something that Ruth has talked about specifically, we are simply emphasising that this is something of huge importance to us,” a spokesman said, when asked whether fishing constituted a “red line” in Davidson’s wish list for Scotland within a new UK government.

May is under pressure from factions within her party to change her stance on Brexit, having lost her majority just as talks with the EU are due to start.

She has yet to reach a deal with Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which has 10 seats. And Davidson, who spearheaded the campaign to win 13 Conservative seats in Scotland, has considerable influence.

The EU’s policy allows all European boats access to EU waters and fishing grounds, which it says allows fishermen to compete fairly.

But that means that 60 percent of what would be Scottish fish is caught by other EU fishing nations, the Scottish Fisheries Federation says, arguing that the industry has been decimated by EU membership.

Read the full story at The New York Times

Offshore Wind Turbines Blamed For Killing Family Of Whales

May 23, 2017 — Marine environmental experts blame offshore wind turbines for the deaths of three minke whales that washed up on British beaches, The Times reported Monday.

Wildlife experts claim that the noise generated by wind turbines affected the sonar that whales use to navigate, causing them to beach themselves. There are several commercial offshore wind farms close to where the whales beached themselves.

“My personal opinion is that it could be a consequence of wind farms and the amount of sand in the water,” John Cresswell, chairman of the Felixstowe Volunteer Coast Patrol Rescue Service, told The Times. “If you stop the boat off the coast you can feel the vibrations and hear the noise.”

The U.K. coastguard received reports of a minke whale calf that had become separated from its mother Friday evening. By the next afternoon, it had been found dead at the mouth of the River Ore, and its mother washed up near Felixstowe. On Sunday, another dead adult whale surfaced, indicating that an entire family could have been killed.

“There are studies that show that the sounds created by the operational noise of the turbines create vibrations under that may in fact disorient marine mammals like whales,” Bonnie Brady, director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association who regularly discusses the impacts of noise on marine mammals, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “In the case of what looks like this mother and calf, they go on the wrong path and end up disoriented then beaching themselves. The sound kills.”

Read the full story at The Daily Caller

MCS takes three haddock fisheries off ‘green list’

March 20, 2017 — UK-based environmental charity the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) has downgraded three haddock fisheries on its “Good Fish Guide”, citing “a change in scientific advice”.

Two North Sea haddock fisheries are now rated 4 (amber), and the other has dropped from being a good choice (rated 2) to one to eat only occasionally (rated 3). This means all three drop off the MCS’ recommended green list of fish to eat.

“These ratings changes have come about because scientfic perception of the stock has changed. Compared to 2015, the stock numbers in 2016 were below the recommended level and at the point where action is now needed to increase the number of fish of breeding age,” said Bernadette Clarke, Good Fish Guide manager.

However, Scottish fishermen’s representatives told the Guardian the move as “dressing advocacy up as science”.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Poll: 75% of UK Residents Say Brexit Will Not Stop Overfishing

March 8, 2017 — SEAFOOD NEWS — A poll carried out by YouGov for Oceana has revealed that 65% of the public are either “not confident” (46%) or “don’t know” (19%) when asked if they think the UK government will be better at stopping overfishing in the UK post-Brexit, compared to the existing guidance from the EU. Overfishing, or fishing too much, is one of the most critical issues facing our oceans. The fate of UK fisheries was a key feature of the Brexit debate with leading Brexit campaigners Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage frequently citing it as an example of EU mismanagement, even though the UK has always played an active role in setting catch limits.

“Brexit is an opportunity for the UK to revitalise its fishing industry, stabilise threatened ecosystems and create thousands of new jobs but this will only happen if overfishing is stopped. The UK government must fulfil the promises of the Brexit campaign that vowed British fisheries can thrive without EU guidance. This will only happen if overfishing is stopped,” explains Lasse Gustavsson, Executive Director, Oceana in Europe.

Interestingly, although 46% of respondents are not confident Brexit will be a positive influence on stopping overfishing, this figure rises to 60% in Scotland. The Scottish fishing industry contributes up to two thirds of the total fish caught in the UK and the country voted heavily to remain in the EU in last year’s referendum.

The poll also revealed a shocking lack of public knowledge about overfishing in Europe. A recent report commissioned by Oceana revealed that 64% of European fish stocks are currently overfished. However when asked, 83% of Brits either underestimated (31%) or said they didn’t know (52%) this figure.

Overfishing, or fishing too much, is reducing year after year the amount of fish available in the water and threatening marine ecosystems and fishers’ livelihoods. If overfishing was stopped and fish resources were managed sustainably, European fisheries could increase catches by almost 60% more fish in less than 10 years or 5 million tonnes. For this reason, Oceana has created a campaign that aims to mobilize European citizens in the fight against overfishing: #StopOverfishing.

All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 7,203 adults from Italy, UK, Germany, Spain and Denmark, of which, of which 2085 were from the UK. Fieldwork was undertaken between 3rd – 6th February 2017. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative on a country-by-country basis and are representative of all adults (aged 18+) in the Denmark, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK.

This story originally appeared on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

Cod, pollock now included in EU discard ban

January 4, 2017 — The latest stage of the landing obligation, or “discard ban,” took effect on New Year’s Day, confirmed U.K. Fisheries Minister George Eustice, with the country’s fishermen now required to land cod and pollock.

U.K. government’s Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) said the discard ban has gradually introduced to allow time to adapt and that two species – North Sea cod and northwestern waters pollock – had joined the list of fish that must be landed. Existing bans for species such as sole, plaice and haddock have also been extended to include more vessels.

“Fishing sustainably is one of our biggest priorities, both now and for the future, and the discard ban is an incredibly important step to help us reach maximum sustainable yield by 2020,” said Eustice. “While there will always be challenges in adapting to new polices, ending the wasteful practice of throwing dead fish back overboard will not only help maintain stock levels, but will help create a profitable fishing industry for years to come.”

The latest phase of the landing obligation follows the implementation of the ban to pelagic species such as mackerel and blue whiting in 2015, and the extension to demersal species haddock, sole and plaice at the start of 2016.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Squid may become favourite UK meal as seas become warmer

December 13th, 2016 — Squid and fish that thrive in warmer waters, such as sardines and anchovies, are flourishing around the North Sea, according to fisheries data.

Squid are now being caught at 60% of survey stations in the North Sea, compared with 20% in the 1980s.

But the likes of cod are heading north, away from British waters.

Dr John Pinnegar, of the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas), which has been monitoring North Sea fish populations for more than 100 years, said models for 2025 and beyond suggested that seawater temperatures off the UK may continue to rise.

Fishing boats are now catching species that have not been caught in the area before.

Mediterranean alternatives

“Twenty or 30 years ago we hardly saw squid in our surveys,” he told BBC News.

Dr Pinnegar, programme director for marine climate change at Cefas, said summer squid fisheries had expanded around the Moray Firth in north-east Scotland, as part of efforts to reduce over-fishing of more traditional species such as haddock and cod.

“A lot of the things we see increasing in abundance around the UK are marine animals that would probably originally [be] thought of as being Mediterranean or characteristic of the Bay of Biscay, or around Portugal or Spain,” he added.

Read the full story at BBC News 

UK fishing federations adopt united stance on Brexit

November 30, 2016 — The Scottish Fishermen’s Federation (SFF) and the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations (NFFO) have come to an agreement upon common principles for which they will jointly negotiate in upcoming talks on the terms of the United Kingdom’s separation from the European Union, also known as Brexit.

Following a meeting on 25 November in Edinburgh, Scotland, the two groups agreed on key outcomes they would like to achieve “to ensure the best possible deal for coastal communities in the forthcoming Brexit negotiations,” according to a press release.

“We see the UK’s departure from the E.U. and therefore the [Common Fisheries Policy] as an opportunity to address the distortions that were built into the CFP from its inception,” said Barrie Deas, chief executive of the NFFO, which represents a broad section of fishermen across England, Northern Ireland and Wales. “The U.K. industry is united that this is a once in a generation opportunity to put things right.”

Both organizations regard Brexit as an “historic opportunity,” as the U.K. regains full control of its 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
At the meeting between the two federations, the two organizations agreed to fight against any roll-over of the current Common Fisheries Policy and against negotiations that entangle fisheries issues other matters not related to fishing.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Britain’s fishing industry voted overwhelmingly to leave the EU — now it feels ‘betrayed’ by May’s Brexit proposals

November 8, 2016 — Britain’s £1-billion fishing industry, which voted overwhelmingly to leave the EU, says it feels “betrayed” by the current course of Brexit negotiations.

A poll before the referendum suggested 92% of fishermen would vote to leave the EU, but many are now worried about Theresa May’s plan to roll over the EU’s much-maligned Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) into UK law.

The CFP sets rules for how many fish each EU country’s boats can land. Several politicians have warned that dropping the policy will not benefit the industry, but most fishermen disagreed, believing that its restrictions are the cause of a rapidly declining UK fleet.

But Prime Minister Theresa May intends to introduce a ‘Great Repeal Bill‘ in the wake of Brexit, which will roll over all EU law into UK law — including the CFP.

Alan Hastings, a spokesman for Brexit campaign group ‘Fishing For Leave,’ told Business Insider that the proposal risks “throwing the industry under a bus.”

Read the full story at Business Insider

How to Make Sure Your Fish Wasn’t Caught by Slaves

September 8, 2016 — For years, news outlets have been reporting on the systemic use of slavery in commercial fishing in places such as New Zealand and Thailand. With much of the industry’s byproduct ending up in the United States and Europe—according to a report in The Guardian, “The U.S., U.K., and E.U. are prime buyers of this seafood—with Americans buying half of all Thailand’s seafood exports and the U.K. alone consuming nearly 7 percent of all Thailand’s prawn exports.”—there’s a strong possibility that at some point, slave-caught fish has been served on a dinner plate near you. But thanks to blockchain, a technology best known as the basis for Bitcoin, soon there will be a new digital weapon to fight slave labor.

“We want to help support fish that is caught sustainably and verify these claims down the chain to help drive the market for slavery-free fish,” Provenance founder Jessi Baker told the Guardian. Provenance is an organization dedicated to socially responsible consumerism—it recently began piloting a blockchain program with the Co-Op Food group in the United Kingdom. “This pilot shows that complex, global supply chains can be made transparent by using blockchain technology.”

Currently, the only way to track the progress of seafood through the region’s supply chain is with paper records and tagged animals. According to the Guardian, the world’s biggest tuna exporter, the Thai Union, is all for utilizing blockchain technology. “Traceability—which allows us to prove that our fish is caught legally and sustainably and that safe labor conditions are met throughout the supply chain—is vital if we are to interest consumers in the source of their tuna,” the union’s director of sustainability Dr. Darian McBain told the paper.

Read the full story at Food & Wine