RSSCategory: EU Government News

Discard detractors back down

| March 20, 2012
Discard detractors back down

France, Spain, Malta and a number of small EU states planned to derail the proposed discard ban by presenting an alternative declaration to carry on throwing dead fish overboard and allowing high grading. After an internet campaign organised by a television chef  Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, more than 130,000 Twitter and Facebook messages were sent to ministers [...]

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EU commercial sector fights to keep discards

| March 16, 2012
EU commercial sector fights to keep discards

Just how far out of step are the commercial fishing sector willing to be ? Efforts to ban the practices of highgrading and discarding edible fish at sea could be thwarted by a group of EU member states which are planning to block reforms aimed at conserving dwindling fish stocks. The EU fisheries chief, Maria [...]

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Commercials must do more with less

| March 2, 2012
Commercials must do more with less

According to Struan Stevenson, Senior VP of the EU Fisheries Committee, helping fishermen to do more with less must be the key objective of the EU in respect of the future financing of the fisheries sector under the newly proposed European Maritime & Fisheries Fund (EMFF). He went on to say: “There are three key [...]

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CFP reform–working document

| February 9, 2012
CFP reform–working document

The current Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) has failed to a large extent. It has proved impossible to resolve the long-standing problems (overfishing, overcapacities, the poor economic situation of many undertakings in the fisheries sector, social problems caused by the decline of fisheries in many coastal regions). There exists a wide consensus among EU institutions regarding [...]

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Longliners must return tope

| January 29, 2012
Longliners must return tope

Commercial fishermen using longlines, which are thought to take a huge amount of tope bycatch, must now return tope (and other sharks) to the sea unharmed in most European waters. From the official journal of the EU catches taken from EU and international waters of I, IIa, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, XII and XIV [...]

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EU Consultation on invasive alien species

| January 29, 2012
EU Consultation on invasive alien species

Invasive alien species (IAS) are species whose introduction and/or spread, outside their natural past or present distribution, threatens biological diversity. They may cause serious damage not only to ecosystems but also to crops and livestock, disrupting the local ecology, impacting on human health and producing serious economic effects. While some EU instruments are dealing with [...]

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EC CFP Reform ‘at a glance’

| January 20, 2012
EC CFP Reform ‘at a glance’

The EC has released a quick overview to the proposed reform of the CFP, naturally it’s long on ‘what’ and short on ‘how’ and of course the focus is on maximising commercial exploitation rather than maximising the regeneration of species. It’s key proposals are : Take action against over-fishing and in favour of the sustainable [...]

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Clyde nephrops discards

| December 30, 2011
Clyde nephrops discards

Approximately 80 tonnes of biomass are discarded every working day by nephrops  trawlers in the Clyde Sea area (Scotland) compared with only 0.7 tonnes in the Central Adriatic.  On a fleet basis that means that every year a minimum of 25,000 tonnes is discarded in the Clyde Sea area and 35,000 tonnes in the Central [...]

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