Oceana, the largest international advocacy organisation dedicated solely to ocean conservation, announced today it has appointed ocean campaigner Hugo Tagholm as Executive Director of its newly expanded policy campaigns in the United Kingdom. “The United Kingdom’s waters are highly productive with roughly 1.5 million tonnes of fish caught every year, yet only one-third of its … Read more
Oceana, the world’s largest ocean conservation organisation, is expanding its campaigns to protect and restore waters in the United Kingdom (UK). More than 90% of the world’s ocean productivity is under the direct control of 29 countries and the EU. Post-Brexit, the UK exclusive economic zone is ranked among the top 15 fishing areas in … Read more
Conservation charity Oceana says at the current rate of progress, it will take the Government until 2050 to ban the highly destructive fishing method The UK Government is about to issue over 1,000 fishing licenses for EU and UK fishing vessels for 2022, permitting them to bottom trawl in UK Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). This is in … Read more
All bar two of Scotland’s 24 offshore benthic Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) were damaged by bottom-towed fishing gears in 2020, making their ‘protected’ status mere lines on a paper map. Oceana recorded over 44,000 fishing hours using bottom-towed gear in inshore and offshore MPAs in the Scottish Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in 2020. The analysis … Read more
Oceana is calling for an end to the overfishing of severely overexploited fish stocks in European waters as negotiations between the EU and UK start today under the Specialised Fisheries Committee. This new committee provides a forum for discussion and agreement on fisheries management, to prepare the annual consultations through which fishing opportunities for 2022 … Read more
In June 2021, member countries of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT)’s Integrated Monitoring Measures (IMM) working group met online to discuss and consider the advancement of ICCAT’s conservation and management measures. During this meeting, IMM members reviewed a series of proposals including those intended to strengthen ICCAT’s measures aimed at combatting illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. Among these was a proposal tabled … Read more
Advice by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) released today shows that reducing bottom-trawling efforts by 26% could result in protecting 70% of Europe’s Atlantic sea area with small impact on the fishing sector, while delivering huge benefits to the marine environment. These include restoring biodiversity and mitigating climate change. Nicolas … Read more
New data shows 10% increase in total trawling hours in UK benthic MPAs in 2020, despite COVID19 On World Oceans Day, 8 June 2021, marine conservation groups call on the UK and on devolved Governments to commit to ban trawling in Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and properly protect our precious marine environment. This coincides with … 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.
