Campaign: Sustainable Fisheries
EU ministers reject calls for sustainable catch limits in Atlantic waters
The EU’s Agriculture and Fisheries Council reached an agreement early Wednesday morning on 2019 fishing limits for commercial stocks in the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea. After all-night negotiations, the number of catch limits for EU fish stocks set at a sustainable level have increased from 53 to just 59 compared to 2018. Oceana … Read more
EU countries could catch 56% more fish if ministers stopped overfishing in Atlantic waters
The EU could increase the amount of fish landings from the North-Eastern Atlantic and the North Sea by 56%, up to more than 5 million tonnes, if tomorrow’s Council of Ministers approves catch limits in line with scientific advice. A study by Oceana found that the recovery would take less than ten years, and that … Read more
France, Italy and Spain team up to delay EU overfishing deadline for the Mediterranean
Oceana has had access to a proposal by the fisheries ministers of Italy, France and Spain in which they agree to end overfishing in the Mediterranean by 2025. This would imply both a five-year delay to the legally-binding EU 2020 deadline and unfair treatment over other EU countries, an unacceptable political move for the most … Read more
Italian industry hijacks European Commission-funded body to influence EU Parliament decision on Mediterranean fisheries
Oceana has seen evidence revealing that an EU-funded body, the Mediterranean Advisory Council (MedAC), aligned with a portion of the Italian fishing industry to lobby MEPs and postpone the latest European Parliament vote on the Western Mediterranean Multiannual Plan, which could have decided the future of the most overexploited sea in the world. Senior figures … Read more
EU ditches long-term conservation of deep-sea marine life
After negotiations late into Monday evening, agriculture and fisheries ministers came to a disappointing deal on “fishing opportunities” in the European Atlantic waters for the next two years. The agreement affects deep-sea fish and sharks, and goes against recommended conservation measures for this vulnerable marine life and sustainable fishing in the Atlantic, Oceana warns. The … Read more
Recovering fish stocks and fully implementing the Landing Obligation
Summary The reformed Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) was agreed in 2013 and entered into force on 1st January 2014. Among its many innovations, the 2013 regulation introduced, for the first time, a legal requirement to achieve the maximum sustainable yield (MSY) exploitation rate, as well as an obligation to land all catches. Both are inextricably … Read more
Towards a Mediterranean network of EFH
One of the aspects behind the critical situation of Mediterranean stocks is the high exploitation rate of juveniles in many demersal fi sheries. The fisheries management in place today has brought most of assessed stocks outside safe biological limits (FAO, 2017) and some of them face a high risk of biological collapse, such ascommercially-important hake … Read more
