Marine insurance companies can be key actors in the fight against IUU fishing

On 17 December 2020, Oceana hosted an online workshop with the purpose of discussing progress made by the marine insurance industry in adopting best practices to fight illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing — a devastating practice that is damaging the health of the ocean worldwide. Insurance companies can play a key role in helping … Read more

Oceana: EU’s last chance to fulfil the law and stop overfishing

On 16-17 December, the Agriculture and Fisheries Council of the EU (“Agrifish”) will decide on  fishing limits in EU Atlantic waters and the North Sea for 2020. For the first time, measures will be approved for Western Mediterranean waters as well. Oceana urges ministers to meet this final extension of the legal deadline to stop … Read more

Call for the adoption of minimum landing sizes for all GFCM priority species

Western Mediterranean: Overfishing crisis: act now, or lose it forever

The Mediterranean Sea is one of the world’s most important seas. However, it is currently the world’s most overfished sea, with more than 90% of stocks fished above what is considered sustainable (i.e. above Maximum Sustainable Yield, or MSY). In the Western Mediterranean alone, overfishing affects 80% of demersal fish stocks, which live and feed … Read more

Joint NGO priorities on the Multi – annual Plan for the North Sea

Discards and Bycatch

In fact, bycatch is usually discarded. This happens when: the species caught are not commercially valuable (most invertebrate species, fish including sharks, birds, marine mammals, turtles, corals , etc.); catching these species is prohibited because they are protected species; the species are commercially valuable but are smaller than the legally authorized size or the assigned fishing quota … Read more

Oceana urges the European Commission to take urgent measures to eliminate discards fisheries

Discards constitute 8% of total weight of world captures or more than 7.3 million tonnes of fish thrown away at sea. More than 20% of fish is discarded in European waters. On the occasion of a seminar organised by the European Commission on 27 and 28 May, in which experts will discuss their work to … Read more

Oceana denounces that the EU Fisheries Council might authorize more than one million tons of fish discards

Oceana, the international organization dedicated to conserving and protecting the world’s oceans, emphasizes the inefficiency of the current fish stocks management, which does not reflect real catches. In addition to the amounts of landings decided by the Council, tonnes of fish are also cut out from biological stocks by indirect impacts of fisheries, above all … Read more

Millions of tons of fish are thrown away at sea each year around the world

The discarded fish constitute 8% of the total weight of the world’s captures, or more than 7.3 million tons of fish that are thrown away at sea.  Oceana affirms that this practice is most troubling in the European Union’s Atlantic fisheries. One out of every 6 kilos of fish captured in Europe never reaches the … Read more

Oceana asks the World Trade Organisation to withdraw subsidies for destructive fisheries

At the ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) held in Hong Kong between 13 and 18 December, Oceana called on representatives of the countries present and the Director General of the WTO, Pascal Lamy, to put a stop to fishing subsidies that encourage overfishing and other destructive fishing practices. “In this respect, the … Read more