Failure to reform the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) could be catastrophic for fish stocks EU Fisheries Ministers were told at a Luxembourg summit and following a presentation by Commissioner Maria Damanaki, Fisheries Ministers had an exchange of views on the available policy options for the reform of the CFP. Unsurprisingly, the meeting was told that [...]

In the EU’s latest Consultation on Fishing Opportunities for 2011, their latest assessment of the fish stocks for the West of Scotland, Irish and Celtic Sea stocks show that many stocks are depleted. It also shows there are widespread problems with recording of catches and other data to the point that the state of the [...]

The EU’s industrial purse seine fleets have caught their whole annual quota of bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean in one week. France’s purse seiners, for example, had already caught 1,456 tonnes by June 8th – some 86 per cent of their quota for the year – while Spain’s had caught 728 tonnes, over 90 per [...]

Concerns about foreign fish being sold in Europe and what to do about the future of Europe’s fisheries industry were aired in a hearing held by the Fisheries Committee on 8 April. Over fishing, plunging stocks and falling prices have created a perfect storm battering the fisheries industry. Many of their representatives were in Brussels [...]

In a previously confidential legal opinion, forwarded to the Parliament in July 2009, but finally made public when tabled for debate in the Parliament’s Fisheries Committee, the European Parliament’s Legal Service has declared fishing by European vessels in Western Sahara’s waters to be in violation of international law. The new opinion calls on the European [...]

The EC is proposing a negotiating stance of a near-total trade ban in bluefin tuna at the upcoming CITES meeting in Doha in a bid to save the fish from serious decline in the Mediterranean; it will also call for restrictions on trade in porbeagle and spiny dogfish shark. A weighted majority of EU member [...]

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. [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]