News
July 13, 2010
Future for Swedish Fisheries, Now in English
A strategic Government report on future Swedish fisheries urging “radical change”, has now been released in English. The recommendations from the Swedish Board of Fisheries, published in May, included better distribution of fishing rights between the fishing sector, fishing tourism and leisure fishing, giving priority to what has “the greatest value to society”.
July 8, 2010
Baltic States invited to take part in Clean up the Baltic event
The 4th annual International Clean up the Baltic 2010 event has been scheduled for 9 September in Poland, just when the tourist season nears its end. Organised by Our Earth Foundation (Fundacja Nasza Ziemia), the previous three events have been met with tremendous success, and efforts to continue raising awareness and attention regarding pollution of … Continued
July 1, 2010
American, Costa Rican, share huge Swedish Environmental Award
An American biologist/oceanographer who has ”made it his life’s work to promote a coordinated and sustainable administration of marine resources and marine environments”, and a Costa Rican environmentalist who has successfully fought shark finning are sharing this year’s one million kronor (€105,000) Göteborg Award for Sustainable Development. Dr. Ken Sherman and Randall Arauz, chairman of … Continued
June 30, 2010
North Sea cod slowly recovering, but in Kattegat it’s still do or die
Some positive signs for the North Sea/Skagerrak cod stocks were suggested when ICES published its scientific advice for the 2011 TACs in that region, but the situation for their Kattegat cousins remains at a critical level. The Copenhagen-based International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) said there were now more spawning cod in … Continued
June 30, 2010
EU Council writes off COM TAC cuts
“Most delegations” were said to contend that the Commission was going too far with some proposed TAC cuts for 2011, and the retiring Spanish Presidency chair Elena Espinosa underlined that they were only “at the very beginning” as the EU June Council meeting opened formal discussions of the upcoming CFP reform. At a press conference … Continued
June 29, 2010
Not seeing too well, male fish gets pregnant with the wrong female
Temporarily impaired vision may have the same potentially disastrous effects for fish as for humans in picking a partner for mating, new research shows. Josefin Sundin, a Ph.D student at the Evolutionary Biology Centre (EBC) of Uppsala University, has studied how the broad-nose pipefish (Syngnathus typhle) reacts to intensive algal bloom, in later years a … Continued
June 24, 2010
CFP Reform, 2011 TAC-setting, on agenda for June Council
No decisions are expected on fisheries issues at the June EU Council meeting in Luxembourg, but CFP reform and future TACs will be up for debate. At the Tuesday 29 luncheon – possibly over a seafood menu – the Fisheries ministers will discuss “Reform of the common market organisation (CMO) for fishery and aquaculture products”. The … Continued
June 23, 2010
ITQs may be straw that broke the camel’s back for Danish fishing hamlet
A whole Danish fishing community that went for ITQs now risks to be wiped out after the local bank collapsed. When Danish fishing quotas were made transferable in 2007, many fishermen on north-western Jutland cashed in, sold their boats and whole communities moved on to other ways of making a living. In the village of … Continued
June 23, 2010
Fishers follow the money, not the big fish, report says
Contrary to earlier beliefs, a new study indicates that professional fisheries do not go for what is left at the top of the food chain, but rather focuses on what is most profitable: shrimp pays better than cod. The depletion of stocks high in the food web, such as cod and tuna, has earlier been … Continued
June 22, 2010
Illegal fishing plunders West African waters
Ivory Coast officials say its own seafood catches went down 30 percent last year, and some experts estimate that illegal catches along West African coasts, mostly by European or Asian vessels, amount to as much as one billion dollars annually. According to the Environmental Justice Foundation, an NGO based in London, as many as 60 … Continued