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Featured Articles
Discards – PhD Opportunity
Discarding in UK Commercial Fisheries School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia Prof A Grant (Project Supervisor) Worldwide, in excess of 7 million tonnes of fish are discarded by commercial fisheries. In the seas to the south and west of the UK, for example, more than ...
Elephants, sharks, bluefin tuna and polar bears will be high on the agenda at the CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) meeting in Doha, Qatar, 13-25 March. The EU could have a powerful presence if member states can agree on their priorities, ...
New research organisation
The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) announces the creation of a new, national research organisation that will work in partnership with the UK marine research community to deliver integrated marine science and technology from the coast to the deep ocean. The National Oceanography Centre (NOC) will be formed by bringing ...
Under the Marine and Coastal Access Act, Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authorities (IFCAs) are to replace the existing Sea Fisheries Committees (SFCs) from April 2011. Representatives of a wide range of interests with local knowledge, including commercial fishermen, sea anglers and other recreational and conservation bodies are being invited ...
Breaking the law ?
A recent report by Oceana asserts EU fisheries management does not comply with International law and may also constitute a breach of the European treaty as there is no chance of reaching the Johannesburg commitment for sustainably by 2015. Oceana fisheries scientists have published a scientific study showing that the ...
European Wasteful fisheries
By-catches and discards are amongst the main concerns of fisheries management. Every year, more than 27 million tonnes of fish is discarded worldwide. In the NE Atlantic, where most of the EU fleet operate, the level of discard is estimated at approximately 2.7 million tonnes per year. But the real ...
RESPONSIBLE ANGLERS hold the key to conserving the River Tay’s dwindling salmon stocks, the fishing fraternity were told yesterday. Speaking on the opening day of the salmon fishing season, Tay District Salmon Fisheries Board chairman Bill Jack expressed confidence that anglers would embrace the voluntary “catch and release” code ...
Cod the new salmon ?
Scientists and fishermen have known for a long time that cod prefer certain areas of the ocean over others. But what scientists are beginning to document is the extent to which the same cod return to the same area to spawn year after year, the way salmon and river herring ...
According to the Atlantic Salmon campaigner Orri Vigfússon of the North Atlantic Salmon Fund. Listeners to Radio Scotland’s New Year’s Newsweek programme heard the Fund Chairman Orri Vigfusson talk about the successes and failures of the fund’s work to restore the low stocks of wild salmon in rivers round ...
Government
UK MPA Update The MCZ Project
Since the Marine and Coastal Access Act received Royal Assent in November 2009, the MCZ Project team members have been progressing data collection, drafting guidance and undertaking stakeholder engagement activities.
The regional MCZ Projects have employed their expected full teams and are engaging stakeholders in their regions to form their stakeholder groups. It is [...]
Sea Angling and the CFP – update
You may remember the furore when Recreational Sea Anglers (RSA) found them selves in the firing line for a series off ill thought out proposals intended to bring RSA into the Common Fisheries Policy.
The wheeling and dealing has finally finished regarding the Control regulations. Article 55 (the old Art47 came into affect from January 1.
COUNCIL [...]
Fishing decisions to be de-centralised
The Parliament’s fisheries committee yesterday (27 January) approved a report by Portuguese centre-right MEP Maria do Céu Patrão Neves, which calls for decision-making to be decentralised, and for fishermen and -women to be given more of a say over the management of stocks.
Although this is a non-legislative report, it is significant in that it [...]
Scottish Executive News
Holyrood response to CFP ReformEXECUTIVE SUMMARY
(i) Scotland is the major fishing nation within the UK and one of the most significant fishing nations within the EU. The Scottish industry has been at the forefront of fisheries management modernisation and innovation aimed at ensuring sustainable fisheries. Many coastal communities in Scotland are amongst the most fisheries-dependent in Europe.
(ii) [...]
Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) Reform The Common Fisheries Policy is Europe’s regulatory regime governing fisheries in EU waters.
Each Member State is given an annual Total Allowable Catch (TAC) that is distributed so each country has relative stability of fishing activities. More recent controls have involved limits on fishing efforts and technical conservation measures.
The Policy has been criticised by some [...]
MPA network gets go ahead Dr Bill Wilson, an SNP MSP for the West of Scotland and member of the Scottish Parliament’s Rural Affairs and Environment Committee, has had his amendment to the Marine (Scotland) Bill, calling for the establishment of a representative network of conservation sites, which would include Nature Conservation Marine Protected Areas, approved.
He commented today, “I am [...]
Commercial
Devon trawlers reduce discards by 57%Radical approach by scientists to work alongside fishing fleet brings unprecedented results
An innovative partnership between scientists and the Devon beam trawler fleet aimed at helping to protect fish stocks, has led to skippers reducing the amount of juvenile fish discarded overboard by 57%.
This unprecedented success has been achieved, using modified nets as part of a [...]
Where did it all get lost ?
A memorandum submitted by The Highlands and Islands Fishermen’s Association to a Westminster Select Committee in 1999
It is our Association’s view that no finite resource can ever get too much research into its capability and productive capacity within it’s sustainable limitations. Money however, is not inexhaustible, and there is a [...]
RACS need to improve – WWF study The impartiality/neutrality of the RAC Chairmen needs to be improved, along with the structural balance between the industry and NGOs, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) points out in a recent report on the functioning of the European Union’s seven Regional Advisory Councils (RACs).
WWF took a closer look at how well the RACs are [...]
