98 posts
LONDON: AN EXAMPLE TO FOLLOW
The initiative of making London the first Sustainable Fish City in the world is gaining momentum, also thanks to the Sustainable Fish Forum that took place in London on 24 January. I had the chance to partake in the event, organised by the Marine Con...
Comoros islands commit to fight illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing
A delegation of the European Commission and a delegation of the Union of Comoros met within the framework of the Joint Committee to discuss issues linked to the implementation of the Fisheries partnership agreement between the EU and the Union of...
DON’T KILL THE (GODS’) MESSENGER
Technically, we refer to them as “cetaceans by-catch”, but the awkward feelings you get looking at the picture of a dolphin entangled in a fishing net, dead, clearly show how this definition is cold. In Greek mythology, dolphins were mess...
EU-US: A PARTNERSHIP TO ERADICATE ILLEGAL FISHING
I am just on my way back from the United States, where I did sign a significant agreement between Europe and the US administration on putting an end to pirate fishing with Dr. Jane Lubchenco, Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and...
How the EU quietly empties African waters
Making European fisheries more sustainable, stop overfishing and ban fish discards - those are the centerpieces of the new European fisheries policy. Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki presented it to the media and the European Parliament last wee...
New plans proposed to preserve EU fish populations
By DON MELVIN BRUSSELS (AP) – Fish populations are being depleted to such an extent that Europe’s children face the prospect of a future where they’ll see fish only in pictures and not on their plates, a senior European Union offici...
War clouds threaten, and swords rattle in their sheaths, and the new Continental system is unwrapped.
We are to go to war again, with Iceland. Richard Benyon, the landlocked farmer who represents these Isles on fisheries matters is off to Brussels tomorrow, nomibnally to fight for British fishing. He has of course used that traditional old line,Envir...
EU research achieves breakthrough as fish spawn in captivity
EU scientists have succeeded in obtaining viable mass eggs from Atlantic bluefin tuna in captivity, using natural means and without any hormonal induction. If breeding can be developed on a commercial scale, pressure on endangered wild stocks could b...
More controls over third-party vessels
Spain's Ministry for the Environment and Rural and Marine Affairs (MARM) has established controls over vessels from third-party countries to prevent, deter and eliminate illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU).
Europe in fish debt to rest of the world
Starting last Friday (10th July), Europeans began to accumulate yet another debt -- fish debt, actually. At least that's what several economists and marine conservationists say. Their new report indicates that Europeans consume almost twice as much f...
Agricultural policy priorities of Belgian Presidency
At the 3026th Council meeting on Agriculture and Fisheries held in Brussels on 12 July 2010, Ms Sabine LARUELLE and Mr Kris PEETERS gave a brief presentation on the Belgian Presidency work programme in the agriculture and fisheries sectors. The agric...
New study highlights EU dependence on fish imports
European Union (EU) citizens are eating more fish than can be produced in EU waters and are thereby increasingly dependent on imports, according to a new report by the think tank nef (New Economics Foundation) and OCEAN2012. The study, Fish Depende...
Council Conclusions: Simplification of agriculture legislation
The 3025th Council meeting on Agriculture and Fisheries held in Luxembourg on 29 June 2010 held an exchange of views on the simplification of agriculture legislation following a presentation by the Commissioners in charge of Agriculture and Rural Dev...
Council conclusions: Bluefin tuna documentation programme
The 3025th Council meeting on Agriculture and Fisheries held in Luxembourg on 29 June 2010 adopted a regulation establishing a catch documentation programme for bluefin tuna, following a first reading agreement with the European Parliament under the...
Council conclusions: Reform of the CFP
The 3025th Council meeting on Agriculture and Fisheries held in Luxembourg on 29 June 2010 had an exchange of views on the available policy options for the reform of the common fisheries policy (CFP) following a presentation by Commissioner Damanaki.
Council conclusions: Fishing opportunities for 2011
The 3025th Council meeting on Agriculture and Fisheries held in Luxembourg on 29 June 2010 has hold an exchange of views on fishing opportunities for 2011 on the basis of the Commission's communication. The communication sets out the general approac...
S&D push for more sustainable fisheries policy
New impetus for sustainable aquaculture and fisheries policy was given today in Strasbourg, following the adoption of two reports backed by European Socialists and Democrats. "The debate on fishery seems often to be a matter of intensive fishery vs.
Fisheries, Aquaculture, Food safety, and Marine Biotechnology projects
In FP7, marine related projects are to be found across all themes of the Specific programme COOPERATION.Theme 2: "Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, and Biotechnologies" plays a key role to support marine related research projects through 3 activities.
Main ACP-EU events for the week of 28th June to 2nd July 2010
European Parliament (Brussels): - 28th June: Meeting of the Agriculture and Rural Development CommitteeEU Presidency: - 28th to 29th June (Luxembourg): Council of Agriculture and Fisheries- 1st July: Belgium takes over the Presidency of the Europea...
EU orders industrial tuna fishing ban
In the wake of huge depletion in stocks of bluefin tuna, EU Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki decided on the 9th June to ban large-scale bluefin tuna fishing in the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic. The ban has already come into effect. The ban...
Main ACP-EU events for the week of 21st to 25th June 2010
European Parliament (Brussels): - 22nd June: Hearing on the external dimension of the Common Fisheries Policy- 22nd June: Commissioner De Gucht at the Committee on International Trade EU Presidency: - 24th June (Luxembourg): Council of Telecommunicat...
If I was a prawn I would be terrified
Seafood fears as Iceland-EU talks openOf course this is pretty serious stuff. Iceland, along with Norway have maintained their fish stocks by steering well clear of the Common Fisheries Policy and it was unnerving to see the sight of French, Spanish...
Report on EU-Africa fishing agreements
On 6 April, France's Economic, Social and Environmental Council published a report on fisheries partnership agreements (FPA) between the European Union and African states. As part of its review of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) post-2013, the Euro...
Commission seeks to get fisheries management on track in 2011
The European Commission published recently its report launching discussions on fishing opportunities in EU waters in 2011. The document sets out how the Commission intends to act on the scientific advice it receives on the state of fish stocks when...
Something fishy?
The European Commission website CORDIS has reported that a Study published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment finds 25% of fish on sale in Ireland are mislabelled, other types of fish being sold as cod or haddock. Similar resul...
EU vows to tackle overfishing with policy overhaul
European Union ministers on Wednesday vowed to overhaul their 840 million euro-a-year fishing subsidies policy by next year to avoid overfishing and make the industry more sustainable.In British waters alone, scientists estimate fish stocks have decl...
Fish & Fields: EU reforms for the better?
CAP and CFP are the EU abbreviations of the week, but they will remain extremely important for the months to come. The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) of the European Union need reform, and with the informal me...
Common Fishery Policy, Data Blogging & Transparency in the EU Council - updated
Update: See the visualisation of this blog post that I have done as a follow-up. This blog post is definitely among the most work-, research- and lern-intensive I have ever written, and I still feel I haven't done enough, even knowing that the artic...
South Pacific Ocean: Fisheries Convention
In 2006, the governments of Australia, Chile and New Zealand took the initiative to launch the process of International Consultations on the establishment of South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation (SPRFMO). The purpose of the Consul...
Fish industry voices concern over foreign fish and falling prices
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 perfec...
Mauritania: EU review fisheries agreement
Representatives of the government of Mauritania and the European Union (EU) have started to review the application of the fisheries agreement between the two parties, which came into force two years ago. For his part, Hans-Georg Gerstenlauer, head o...
EU-funded study urges caution on transgenic fish farming
How can we curb overexploitation of fish stocks and give commercial fish farming a boost? Some experts say transgenic fish, whose genetic material has been altered to boost growth rates, for instance, is just the ticket. But Swedish researchers have...
Report sheds light on EU support for overfishing
EU subsidies to fishermen were supposed to help tackle overcapacity in the sector. But one third of the money nevertheless contributed to increasing the pressure on EU stocks that are already declining, according to the Pew Environment Group, an NGO.
Tuna Ban and Climate Change
By a large majority, the 175 contracting parties of CITES (“Convention on the international Trade in endangered Species”; have rejected a request by Monaco, backed by the USA and the EU, to put a temporary ban on the fishing of blue-fin Atlantic...
European Parliament Study on the impacts of WTO negotiations on fisheries
A European Parliament study on the impacts of WTO negotiations on fisheries underlines the significance of trade in fisheries for the EU-27 as the leading import market for fish products in the world. The EU-27 share of world import amounts to 30 per...
Reforming the Common Fisheries Policy
The laudable theory behind Europe’s Common Fisheries Policy was to manage a shared natural resource for the benefit of all, but in application the policy has proven an unmitigated disaster. Under the EU’s own figures, around ninety per cent of Eu...
Common Fisheries Policy: radical re-think needed to protect small fishermen
The reform of the Common Fisheries Policy must support small scale fisheries. This was the clear message from ALDE MEPs during a debate in the European Parliament in Brussels today. Carl Haglund (Svenska folkpartiet, Finland ), shadow rapporteur for...
The urgently needed reform of the Common Fisheries Policy
European seas are emptying of valuable fish - more than 80% of assessed fish stocks in EU waters are overfished and 30% are outside safe biological limits. As a result, the fishing sector is suffering and fishing communities struggle to make a living...
Bluefin tuna benefits from political deadlock
The European Commission has decided to delay its decision - from yesterday January 13 to a new undetermined date - about whether to include the bluefin tuna in the endangered species' list. Despite the EC's initial endorsement of the proposal, the re...
Reform of Common Fisheries Policy control framework
The fisheries control regulation in force until now dates back to 1993. It has since been amended a dozen times, in particular in 1998 to include the control of fishing effort, and in 2002 during the last reform of the Common Fisheries Policy(CFP). T...
Guinea: End of the provisional application of the fisheries agreement
The 2988th Council meeting on Environment held in Brussels on 22 December 2009 adopted a decision with a view to put an end to the provisional application of the fisheries partnership agreement (FPA) with the Republic of Guinea (16976/09). By means o...
New system to better control fisheries and fight against illegal fishing
On 1 January 2010, a set of new, strong rules has enter into force to bolster the control system of the European Union's Common Fisheries Policy. These rules will give the EU and its Member States new and powerful tools not only to protect the resour...
Negotiations EU-Morocco in the agri-food and fisheries sector
The Moroccan and EU negotiators signed an agreed minute concluding negotiations that have been ongoing for almost four years in view of a future agreement on improving bilateral trade conditions for products from the agri-food and fisheries sector. T...
Spanish tuna vessel Alakrana got 4.3 million euro in subsidies
A few months ago the Spanish tuna fishing vessel Alakrana hit the headlines after it was captured by pirates off the coast of Somalia. A huge rescue operation was mounted and it is understood a seven-figure ransom was paid for the release of the vess...
Our video guest: Mr. Carlos Palin, manager of the SFP Programme
Mr. Carlos Palin, manager of the "Strengthening Fishery Products Health Conditions in ACP/OCT Countries" (SFP) Programme is our guest. Mr. Palin provide us an overview of the context, the objectives and the types of activities and operations of the p...
2010 guide prices for fisheries products: decrease for most products
The European Commission has adopted its annual proposal on next year’s guide prices for fresh and frozen fisheries products as well as the EU producer price for tuna for processing. The Commission proposes to decrease guide prices for white fish an...
ACP mechanism for coordination and cooperation in fisheries
Based on the mandate provided by the Resolution of June 2008 taken by the Council of ACP Ministers in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the first Meeting of ACP Ministers in charge of Fisheries was convened from 2nd to 5th June 2009, with the view of creating a...
New fisheries management organisation for the South Pacific high seas
The European Commission has welcomed the adoption of a Convention for the setting up of a new regional fisheries management organisation (RFMO), to manage non-tuna fish stocks in the south Pacific, in Auckland, New Zealand. This Convention will allow...
EC welcomes ICCAT’s action to save bluefin tuna and other marine species
The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT), which met near Recife, Brazil, adopted a number of new multi-annual management plans which align fishing opportunities with the latest scientific opinions. The European Commi...
Fish farming seen driving food security
As global fish stocks continue to plunge, fish farming is seen as a way of contributing to food security. The EU has pledged to increase the competitiveness of European aquafarming to meet a growing appetite for seafood, but policymakers stress that...
Fisheries Minister: Iceland better off outside the EU
Iceland's Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries, Jón Bjarnason, yesterday gave a speech to an international conference on coastal fisheries in Biarritz in France. At the end of his speech Bjarnason, who voted against his government's application fo...
EU - ACP Fish II programme
Over the years, the European Community has developed strong political and economic relationship with countries from ACP regions, known collectively as the ACP Group, notably through the signing of the Cotonou Agreement in 2000. Fisheries is one of th...
Control system for the Common Fisheries Policy
The 2976th Council meeting on Agriculture and Fisheries held in Brussels on 20 November 2009 adopted a regulation establishing a modernised system for inspection, monitoring, control, surveillance and enforcement of the rules of the Common Fisheries...
Mozambique: Fisheries cooperation renewed with Norway and Iceland
The governments of Mozambique, Norway and Iceland have pledged to renew their cooperation in fisheries for the period 2009-2013, seeking to improve and make sustainable the exploitation of Mozambican fisheries resources. The programme of fisheries as...
Common Fisheries Policy: Agreement on new control system
The 2966th Council meeting on Agriculture and Fisheries held in Luxembourg on 19 October 2009 reached political agreement on a regulation establishing a modernised system for inspection, monitoring, control, surveillance and enforcement of the rules...
EU remains weak on tuna, rest of world must respond
WWF has expressed disappointment that despite the good progress represented by 21 out of 27 European Union Member States confirming their support for an international trade ban for endangered Atlantic and Mediterranean bluefin tuna, this majority is...
Common Fisheries Policy reform
Joe Borg says the EU must over problems it "inherited" from the past before it can implement reform ...
Agriculture and Fisheries Council
The Agriculture and Fisheries Council will meet on the 25-26 of May under the Presidency of Mr Jakub Sebesta, minister for Agriculture of the Czech Republic. The points to be discussed are the simplification of the CAP and the Green Paper on the refo...
EU: Common Fisheries Policy (CFP)
The Eurpean Union’s common fisheries policy (CFP) is the point where dwindling fish stocks, oversized fishing fleets and undersized fishing revenue clash. Eur-Lex is the web portal for legal information about the European Union. In addition to trea...
EU Fisheries: Two Views
Image via WikipediaTwo interesting blog posts written in response to the recent publication of the European Commission's Green paper: Reform of the Common Fisheries Policy.One critical post (here) written by Bruno Waterfield of the Daily Telegraph. T...
Why I Don’t Criticise The Commission over Fishing Policy
A week ago the European Commission published its Green paper ‘Reform of the Common Fisheries Policy.’ This has widely been interpreted as a confession of failure; an admission that years of subsidy to the fishing industry, matched by ever decreas...
The EU should auction Fishing Quotas
Overfishing of the seas has become a global issue. Traditionally fish has been a common good like fresh water or air to which everybody had free access, without any restrictions or payments. But as the demand for fish increased in the course of the...
Agriculture and Fisheries Council
The Agriculture and Fisheries Council meeting, chaired by Czech Agriculture Minister Petr Gandalovi&...
EU fishing policy to become more federal
The blog has observed before the problems facing the fishing industry. The ability of the fishing fleets to catch fish has been outstripping the ability of the marine environment to regenerate itself. Every other industry has used technology to boo...
Tuna wiped out by 2012, if overfishing is not stopped
Tuna will be wiped out by 2012 unless overfishing is stopped, environmental groups have warned. If c...
EU shows its full commitment to bluefin tuna conservation
The Council adopted a Regulation to transpose into Community law the new multi-annual recovery plan ...
Lobby faults EPA deal on fisheries
The fisheries component of the interim Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) which East African Comm...
Fisheries control: EP rewrites rules on recreational fishing
The EP Fisheries Committee rewrote the rules on recreational fishing in its consultative report, ado...
The EU's wrong policy on Somali pirates...
The European Union is better than sending EUNAVFOR after the Somali pirates - and Operation Atalanta should be scrapped for a more positive policy that solves why Somali fishermen take up piracy in the first place. The policy of the UN and EU to "get...
A step closer to a ban on seal products
Yesterday MEPs on the Internal Market and Consumer Rights (IMCO) Committee agreed to a ban on the import of seal products deriving from commercial culls.A majority of 25 MEPs to seven on IMCO voted to strengthen the Commission's proposal calling for...
EU external fisheries policy and CFP reform
At the meeting of the European Parliament’s fisheries committee on the reform of the CFP, the Fisher...
Iceland & The EU Fisheries Bind
Publius reminds us all that if Iceland doesn't move to join the EU, it will largely be because the EU's fisheries policy is a disaster.That may be so, but the British, Irish and Danes have all kinds of exemptions. Why not a fisheries exemption for Ic...
Some facts about fishing
Apparently, there was a campaign launch today by the Taxpayers Alliance, protesting against the EU’s common fishing policy. There are a lot of things wrong with that policy, to be sure, but in the absence of the TPA’s campaign document I can’t...
Brussels proposals for recreational fishing are a 'mackerel to catch a sprat' says local Lib Dem Euro MP
Responding to the fears that 'recreational fishers' will be caught up in the latest fishing conservation measures from Brussels, local Lib Dem Euro MP, Diana Wallis has slammed them as using a 'mackerel to catch a sprat'.
Fisherman, the end of a profession in Europe?
‘Fresh home-caught fish!’ Will we still be hearing this cry in a few years’ time? There certainly seems to be reason to worry, judging by the situation of the European fishing industry...
Fisherwomen of the World unite!
I wanted to write something about this awful article by "progressive pro-Europe" Bruno Waterfield. However it has already been done in a wonderful way, over at Julien Frischs Blog.
