News
August 11, 2010
Next stage in WWF trout dialogue
Draft standards have now been published in the WWF-led process to minimise environmental effects of freshwater trout aquaculture. The document, resulting from a 200-person roundtable process including scientists as well as industry representatives and environmentalists, is now open for public comment on the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) website. The process has included players from the … Continued
August 11, 2010
Swedish Government agency goes for Asian invader
Swedish Board of Fisheries scientists are eagerly fishing for a Black Sea invader that has already conquered Poland, posing a threat to ecosystem balance, however eatable, preferably pickled. The Round Goby (Neogobius elanostomus), originally swimming the bottoms of the Black and Caspian Seas, was first discovered off Gdansk on Poland’s Baltic coast in 1990, but … Continued
August 11, 2010
New study: What we can learn from the Americans
Hoping to draw conclusions from the American experience when the EU forms a new Common Fisheries Policy, a comprehensive study looks into the US management system, partly much more ambitious and successful in fighting overfishing and rebuilding depleted stocks. The study, commissioned by the Pew Environment Group, focuses on how the Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) … Continued
August 11, 2010
Scottish ingenuity to save fishermen’s lives
A Scottish engineer has developed a potentially life-saving device that warns fishermen if their vessel is about to capsize. “Fishing is the most dangerous industry we have,” says Ken Smith, the inventor, interviewed by The Scotsman. ”But while the accident rate in other industries has been declining in recent years, there has been no corresponding … Continued
August 11, 2010
Japan launching the world’s first investment fund for fish
With a €1.25 billion purse, a major Japanese brokerage house is setting up what it claims to be the world’s first fisheries investment fund. Nomura Securities said the trust is in answer to a growing global demand for fish. After the assembling period August 9-19, the Japanese branch of the French Amundi assessment management company … Continued
July 22, 2010
For fish, the EU owes to the world
If EU citizens had consumed fish from EU waters only, they would have run out of fish the first week in July, a report shows. The report “Fish Dependence: The increasing reliance of the EU on fish from elsewhere”, published by the new economics foundation (nef), one of the founding members of the OCEAN2012 coalition, … Continued
July 22, 2010
US restaurants to start conserving fish
Several huge American fast food/restaurant chains, including McDonald’s, seem to be jumping on the train to save the world’s dwindling fish stocks. “We know that if we go raping and pillaging it today, there’s nothing left for tomorrow,” Ken Conrad, the owner of the chain of 10 Libby Hill seafood restaurants in North Carolina and … Continued
July 22, 2010
Eating fish may save women’s sanity
A recent Nordic study indicates that psychotic conditions are much more common among women who do not eat fish, as compared to those who do. “Our research strengthens the hypothesis that a shortage in vitamin D and some fatty acids may contribute to the emergence of psychotic conditions”, says Maria Hedelin of Karolinska Institutet, The … Continued
July 22, 2010
Caging cod just as good as netting it, project shows
Catching cod in cages has been found well comparable in efficiency to using nets, trials in Sweden have shown. The program, whose sponsors include the Swedish Board of Fisheries, a government agency, and the national organisation for professional fishermen, is still ongoing, but results so far point to an average catch per cage of 3 … Continued
July 19, 2010
Belgian Presidency stakes out the Council autumn
Few political decisions beside the usual TAC and quota haggling are foreseen in the work programme of the Belgian EU Presidency for the second half of 2010. Belgium took over the Presidency from Spain on 1 July, to pass on the torch to Hungary on 1 January next year. Belgium still has a caretaker government … Continued