EU Fisheries Ministers will meet on December 19th and 20th to debate the 2007 fishing quotas for European fleets. Anchovy, cod, hake, megrim, Norwegian lobster and a long list of other marine species are overexploited and in serious decline, and EU fishing grounds are still showing a clear tendency toward collapse. Recent scientific assessments studies … Read more
The European Commission has proposed to reopen the Northeast Atlantic (NEAT) deep-sea gillnet fishery, which takes place in depths between 200 and 1200 meters in waters north and west of Great Britain and Ireland. This fishery was temporarily closed by the European Union Fisheries Ministers in December 2005 due to its incredible waste and the … Read more
The annual meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) which ended last night, brought agreement to examine the status of Atlantic sharks, but no measures to protect these vulnerable species from overfishing. The lack of action by ICCAT leaves conservationists looking to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species … Read more
According to the international organisation for marine research and conservation, Oceana, once again a group of European countries, led by Spain, France, Portugal and Poland are attempting to destroy any initiative taken to stop the deterioration of fish species and marine ecosystems. These governments have continually ignored the warnings given by the scientific community regarding … Read more
Subsidies for fisheries should be completely eliminated, except for those used for dismantling vessels and occupational conversion of fishermen. Oceana, the international marine research and conservation organisation, has just received a report published in Science magazine written by a group of prestigious international scientists supporting the opinions defended by the organisation for years; opinions that … Read more
The continued detentions of fishing vessels under Spanish and other EU flags by Norwegian patrols in Northeast Atlantic waters highlight the weakness of fishing regulations to take on the offenders and the lack of political willpower to put an end to these legal loopholes. This year, the fishing vessels Arosa 9, Arosa 12 and Arosa … Read more
His lawyer is asking to be relieved from representing Vidal’s Uruguayan company due to a conflict of interest. Galician shipping magnate Antonio Vidal will have to face US justice on October 30th in Miami, accused of illegally importing toothfish (also known as deep-sea cod) and obstruction of justice. The district attorney is accusing the shipowner … Read more
The poor state of the anchovy stock in the Cantabrian fishing grounds has once again obliged the European Commission to close them down for the second consecutive year. The aim is to try to alleviate the serious mistakes made by the French and Spanish governments which, despite opposition from scientists, allowed anchovy fishing to continue … Read more
A fleet of barely 20 fishing vessels manages to discard each year between 2,000 and 15,000 tonnes of anglerfish, generate more than 1,000 kilos of waste and “ghost nets” and overexploit stocks of anglerfish, deep-sea red crab and deep-sea sharks. Every day, more than 6,000 kilometres of fixed gillnets (known as rasco) are deployed in … Read more
The detention by Norwegian patrols of two vessels flying Spanish flags, apprehended while catching Greenland halibut, has once again highlighted the wide-ranging practice of rogue fishing by companies that have received subsidies from Galician and Spanish authorities. One of the detained vessels, the Monte Meixueiro, belongs to the Vigo-based company Valiela, S.A., which has received … Read more
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