You can imagine how we felt when we heard the conclusions of a new paper by German scientists linking bad decision making by the EU Fisheries council to the collapse of North Sea Cod. In the early 2000’s, the council rejected the recommendation of scientists to close the North Sea Cod fishery to allow it … Read more
Sweden has stepped up the fight for an EU-wide ban on discards, as rural affairs minister Eskil Erlandsson arrived in Brussels to outline his vision for an ‘ethical and fair’ fishing programme. Discarding refers to the process whereby unwanted fish caught are thrown back into the sea because they aren’t valuable enough or quotas have … Read more
The latest “Looting the Seas” report by the ICIJ (International Consortium of Investigative Journalists) was published today. You may recall a few months ago, we discussed their investigation into illegal fishing, seafood fraud and runaway subsidies in Spain. This time, they turned their focus to the Pacific Ocean, specifically looking into how European, Asian and … Read more
It’s no secret that Finding Nemo is one of my absolute favorite movies, and apparently, I’m not alone in this. Finding Nemo was the second highest grossing movie in 2003, right behind The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (another favorite of mine…but I digress). So it was quite upsetting when I woke … Read more
Today, the European Court of Auditors (ECA) released their long-awaited analysis of the effectiveness of EU fleet management, which shows the systematic failure of fleet capacity reduction policies. Oceana is deeply concerned that even though the problematic nature of overcapacity has been recognized for over 20 years, the EU has been unable to properly address … Read more
Today , the Swedish, Danish and Norwegian fisheries ministers met with EU fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki at a seminar about the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) in Stockholm. During this meeting they signed a declaration, announcing their intention to adopt a ban on discards. The prohibition for discards shall apply from 1 January … Read more
ISTANBUL – Oceana, the largest international advocacy group working solely to protect the world’s oceans, applauded the 22nd Regular Meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) today for establishing new protections for silky sharks, the shark species most vulnerable to overfishing by Atlantic longline fisheries. The new measure requires that … Read more
Oceana, the largest international advocacy group working solely to protect the world’s oceans, is seeking protections for sharks and swordfish at the 22nd Regular Meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), which begins today in Istanbul, Turkey. Without immediate action, Oceana believes that international demand and illegal fishing threaten the existence … Read more
Management of Mediterranean swordfish has repeatedly been neglected to the detriment of the species. The ICCAT Standing Committee for Research and Statistics has assessed this stock as overexploited, with spawning biomass below sustainable levels and with 50-70% of catches comprised of juvenile fish. The complete absence of real management measures makes the Mediterranean swordfish fishery … Read more
It’s ICCAT time again! This week an international team of Oceana experts headed to Turkey to seek protection for sharks and swordfish, both of which are overfished, at the 22nd Regular Meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT). Wondering why an organization that specifies conserving tuna is the place to … Read more
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We have already protected nearly 4 million square miles of ocean and innumerable sea life - but there is still more to be done.
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