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

The protection of juvenile fish is a prerequisite to secure productive fisheries. Yet the catch of small and immature individuals (both targeted and bycatch) is a persistent problem in Mediterranean fisheries that results in the majority of fisheries resources being captured before they realize their reproductive potential. According to the SoMFi 2018 report, a significant … Read more

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

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 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