Two of the main industry organisations in EU fisheries have presented a positioning document on the Commission’s CFP reform Green Paper, calling it “provocative” although “interesting”, but “painting too bleak a picture of the situation, in a pessimistic or even alarmist manner”. Europêche, the umbrella organisation for EU fisheries enterprises, and COGECA, organising Europe’s fishing … Continued
These are challenging times for the European fleet: Depleted stocks, increased regulation, and declining profits mean that management faces tough decisions, and overcapacity cannot be ignored. Those were the main points made at a recent Brussels conference on sustainable fisheries. The Brussels-based Seas At Risk organisation hosted this annual conference, scheduled to discuss the issues … Continued
Sharks had already lived on this planet for 200 million years when dinosaurs appeared. And now, due to a heavy impact of human predation, sharks are slowly disappearing, the audience was told at a recent symposium in Stockholm. There are many misconceptions about sharks, the experts observed, but one aspect needs to be enforced: sharks … Continued
After ”20 or 21” tri-lateral negotiations, EU fisheries ministers finally agreed on a new Control system in the early Tuesday morning hours, including a penalty point system that may result in revoked fishing licenses and widened possibilities for the Commission to punish financially overfishing member states. The Council also agreed on a high-grading ban for … Continued
Many loose-ends still to be tied up, FISH Staffer Christian Tsangarides reports from Chatham House conference in London on illegal-unreported-unregulated fishing. “The 5th International Forum on Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing, hosted by Chatham House in London, has seen much discussion of the new EU rules governing the regulation of IUU fishing that will … Continued
Theories on the use of fisheries resources that bordered to those that won this year’s Nobel Prize for Economics were vented at a recent Stockholm seminar. Professor Kenneth Frank of Michigan State University, based on his research, urged decision makers, community leaders, and fishery managers to take into account the whole scope of the fishery … Continued
The Control Regulation, still subject to last-minute revisions, and the 2010 Baltic catch quotas will top the Fisheries agenda as EU ministers gather for their October 19-20 Council meeting in Luxembourg. For the first time the ministers, and their advisors, carry with them background documents provided in a new project recently launched by FISH and … Continued
The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for 2009 was shared by two American political scientists, rather than economists, one of whom was not only the first woman winner in the 41-year history of that Nobel Prize family “step-brother”, but also a student of fishing communities. Professor Elinor Ostrom of Indiana University, who shared the … Continued
Sweden has been named responsible for coordinating fisheries after the new EU Baltic Strategy is expected to be formally endorsed later in October. The Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region (SBSR) most likely signifies the beginning of stronger regionalisation within the European Union, key fisheries issues such as fleet capacity, discards and illegal catches being … Continued
Free to download from the Internet, a new 478-page book on “Fisheries, sustainability and development” is recommended by a Swedish professor as both “encyclopaedia and student literature”. Thirty-two articles by 52 experts, scientific in scope but popular in style, cover both socioeconomical and ecological aspects of fisheries, as well as aquaculture. The project, chiefly financed by … Continued