Last night the European Council of fisheries ministers reached an agreement on the partial general approach for the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF). This new funding mechanism, which will replace the current European Fisheries Fund in 2014, will seal the future of the European fishing sector until 2020. Oceana is appalled by the outcome … Read more
You can imagine how we felt when we heard the conclusions of a new paper by German scientists linking bad decision making by the EU Fisheries council to the collapse of North Sea Cod. In the early 2000’s, the council rejected the recommendation of scientists to close the North Sea Cod fishery to allow it … Read more
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
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
Remember Vidal? Despite their well-known illegal activities since the nineties and the blacklisting of several IUU fishing vessels, linked to Vidal Armadores, Vidal companies have received millions of Euros of fishing subsidies from the local government of Galicia, the Spanish fisheries ministry and the European Union, since 2002. Oceana has been tracking his activities for … Read more
Last week was a good week for us at Oceana as we closed the month of September with a bang! It’s been a month of victories and good for our work here in Europe, and there is nothing more rewarding than realizing that our efforts are actually making a difference. We therefore thought we’d highlight … Read more
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
Inaction of decision makers and open access fisheries, called to question by Oceana. The General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) closed its 35th Session in Rome on Saturday. According to recent scientific advice, 22 of 23 Mediterranean stocks are overexploited, including highly valuable commercial species like red shrimp (Aristeus antennatus), hake (Merluccius merluccius) and … Read more
Oceana celebrates the step forward taken by Moroccan authorities to comply with international legislation and demands that the process of eliminating driftnets be transparent and conclusive. For years Oceana has documented and lodged complaints about the presence of these illegal nets in ports such as Tangier, Nador and Al Hoceima, for the fishing of swordfish, … Read more
The Biodiversity Summit in Japan is kicking off week 2 and we thought we’d give you a recap with some highlights and news stories from last week. The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity released a report highlighted the enourmous (but necessary) cost of altering the global economy to put value on forests, reefs and other … Read more
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We have already protected nearly 4 million square miles of ocean and innumerable sea life - but there is still more to be done.
Oceana in Europe gratefully acknowledges EU funding support.
