Illegal Fishing Archives

Galician businessman Antonio Vidal, indicted by the EE.UU. authorities for pirate fishing

The Galician businessman, Antonio Vidal, has been indicted by the US Administration for attempting to fraudulently enter into that country’s market some 25,000 kilos of fish protected by international conventions, in this case Patagonian toothfish (Dissostichus eleginoides) and Antarctic toothfish (Dissostichus mawsoni). (http://www.oceana.org/fileadmin/oceana/uploads/europe/reports/cp_usdep_antonio_vidal.pdf) Both Antonio Vidal and one of his companies, Fadilur S.A., have been … Read more

Oceana warns that the fine imposed by the European Commission on France for commercialising undersized fish may be repeated in Spain and other european countries

Oceana has voiced its satisfaction at the exemplary decision taken by the European Commission to fine the French government 57 million euros for having allowed the capture and commercialisation of hake of a smaller size than legally permitted. In many European markets, the commercialisation of undersized hake has become standard practice, despite the fact that … Read more

Oceana supports Spain’s U-turn to fight illegal fishing

Oceana believes that it is crucial that all European States display the same level of commitment in application of Regulations. Oceana appreciates the political U-turn taken by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and the Environment to fight illegal fishing. The General Secretary for Fisheries, Carlos Domínguez, yesterday presented data on control of fishery product imports … Read more

Investigative journalists uncover truth behind decimated fish stocks in the Pacific

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

Oceana: reform of EU fleet management strongly needed to effectively tackle overcapacity and rebuild fish stocks

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

Investigative journalists take on subsidies, illegal fishing and seafood fraud in Spain

Last week, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) released 4 in depth articles, as part of their “Looting the Seas” project that we think are worth sharing with you. They are well researched good reads that delve deep into several real and worrying issues plaguing the European fishing sector, such as subsidies, Illegal fishing … Read more

Oceana blasts member states lack of political will to tackle problem of EU fishing fleet overcapacity

True CFP reform will fail if economic interests continue to be placed ahead of sustainability Oceana is deeply concerned by Member States’ lack of political will and true commitment to achieve a sustainable balance between fleet capacity and fishing resources. This is evidenced by a European Commission report published last week, which reveals that overcapacity … Read more

Oceana once again warns UNESCO of illegal fishing and pollution in spanish world heritage site

Oceana will today meet with representatives of the World Heritage Centre of UNESCO and of the Ramsar Convention Secretariat to present an analysis of the two biggest threats endangering the integrity of the marine environment of Doñana National Park: the planned expansion of the petroleum industry and illegal fishing. This meeting, also attended by other … Read more

Biodiversity

Today, delegates from over 190 nations are converging at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity meeting in Nagoya, Japan. For 2 weeks, they will be discussing ways to curb the erosion of biodiversity on the planet. Ryo Matsumoto, Japan’s Environment Minister said “we are now close to a ‘tipping point’ – that is, we are … Read more

An Education on Overfishing

A lot of people often ask what they can do to learn about the state of the oceans – there is so much information out there, it can certainly be a daunting task to sort through it all. That’s why we decided to pull together some of our favorite books and movies on marine issues. … Read more