News
January 20, 2012
Plans underway to restore the Baltic Sea Harbour Porpoise and the Grey Seal
On 12 January in Sopot, Poland, under a wider WWF Poland project, “Conservation and protection of the Baltic Sea mammals in Poland”, the first stakeholder consultation was held to identify steps towards restoration and protection plans for the harbour porpoise and the grey seal in the Baltic Sea. At the moment there are no coherent plans for protection of either species in the Polish waters.
January 19, 2012
Commission explains CFP reform proposals
The Commission recently published a leaflet as well as several non-papers which provide some detail behind their thinking for the CFP reform proposals. They argue that because “our vessels are catching more fish than can be safely reproduced…(and) the fishing industry is experiencing smaller catches”, a radical reform is necessary.
January 19, 2012
Do you know what your fish ate for breakfast?
The Swedish Society for Nature Conservation and Swedwatch today launched their report on aquaculture and the use of fishmeal in production. It explores the supply chain of tiger prawns from Thailand and farmed Norwegian salmon via Peruvian fisheries to identify how consumption in Sweden leads to food chains being fished out in less developed nations.
January 15, 2012
New Baltic Sea Marine Protected Areas proposed in Sweden, Denmark, and Finland
After a research expedition in the Baltic Sea, Oceana published a report, ‘Conservation proposals for ecologically important areas in the Baltic Sea’, in which nine new Baltic Sea Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are identified. The new MPAs include offshore waters and host habitats, communities and species, which are not adequately covered under the existing system of MPAs in the Baltic Sea.
January 13, 2012
Good reasons to criticise December quota decision
At the December Council, EU fisheries Ministers set quotas for 75 stocks in EU waters, covering the North Sea, Kattegat, Skagerrak and Black Sea. Seafish has produced a table that includes the agreed TACs for 2011 and 2012, along with the ICES advice for each stock (see below).
December 19, 2011
Fisheries Ministers: not enough progress, yet again.
On 17 December, after a difficult negotiation session ending at around 3:00am, the Fisheries Ministers of the European Council decided on the fishing possibilities for 2012 for EU stocks in the North Sea and the Atlantic. Despite assurances expressed by Commissioner Maria Damanaki, that ‘we have a happy end’ after the quota haggling, not enough progress has been made to ensure MSY is reached by 2015 for all stocks.
December 14, 2011
December Fisheries Council: Atlantic and North Sea TACs to be set
At the upcoming meeting on 15–16 December, the Fisheries Council will agree on fishing possibilities for 2012 for EU stocks in the North Sea and the Atlantic, based on the European Commission’s proposals. Crucially important in setting the quotas for 2012, will be adhering to scientific advice to be able to achieve the Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) target. This has been agreed to by the EU to rebuild the European fish stocks to a more sustainable level by 2015.
December 14, 2011
EU-Morocco fisheries deal rejected by the European Parliament
At a plenary today, members of the EP rejected the fisheries partnership agreement (FPA) with Morocco by 326 votes to 296.
December 14, 2011
EU fisheries subsidies evaluation shows that they contribute to overcapacity
The European Court of Auditors (ECA) today strongly criticised the use of subsidies in sustaining overcapacity when publishing its investigation entitled “have EU measures contributed to adapting the capacity of the fishing fleets to available fishing opportunities?” The court investigated spending in seven member states (Denmark, France, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Spain and the UK) and found that four had set inadequate targets for reducing their fleet, leading to overcapacity, which the court identify as one of the main reasons behind the “failure of the CFP”.
December 9, 2011
TFCs discussed at hearing in Brussels
At a meeting in which Danish and Norwegian experiences of ITQ systems were presented, the consensus from four MEPs was that such a system of quota allocation should not be mandatory but may be a useful tool to reduce capacity if stringent safeguards are implemented.