» Marine Legislation



Was the present collapse in North Sea cod stocks forecast in 2018 and ignored?

Our Fish campaigns to end over-fishing and to deliver sustainable fisheries management in EU seas.  It is an initiative of Funding Fish, a registered charity in England and Wales.  Our Fish published the following press release on 11th March 2019: A freedom of information request to the UK’s fisheries management body (the Marine Management Organisation) […]

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ICES foresees the North Sea cod stock collapse in its June 2019 evaluation

 BBC News reports, 28th June 2019: The assessment by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (Ices) says cod is being “harvested unsustainably”. It has recommended a 63% reduction to the available catch to just 10,457 tonnes and follows a 47% cut last year. A discard ban is being partly blamed which increases […]

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MSC suspends North Sea cod stock‘s sustainable fishing certificate

BBC News reports, 25th September 2019: The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) said certificates for North Sea cod fisheries would be suspended as stocks were below the “safe biological level”. A “blue tick” had been awarded in 2017, meaning cod could be eaten “with a clear conscience“. The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) said the suspension was “devastating” […]

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Update on High Seas Treaty proposals and negotiations

Sciencemag.org reports, 3rd April 2019: No flag can claim the high seas, but many nations exploit them. As a result, life in the two-thirds of the oceans beyond any country’s territorial waters faces many threats that are largely unregulated, including over-fishing and the emerging deep-sea mining industry. Now, nations are negotiating the first-ever high-seas conservation treaty, which the […]

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“Fishing For Leave” explains why EU Withdrawal Agreement is a “sell-out”

David Scullion, Brexit Central 18th November 2018, interviews Aaron Brown, Fishing For Leave, and reports on the UK Fisheries Bill currently before the UK Parliament. The Fisheries Bill is due for its Second Reading in the House of Commons on Wednesday 21st November 2018, the first time the Government has attempted to take back sovereignty […]

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Marinet publishes YouTube recording of its UK Universities Seminar

Marinet is currently embarking on a series of seminars at UK universities in which it presents the scientific evidence and arguments for a paradigm change in the governance of human activity in the ocean, as explained by Marinet Member, Deborah Wright, in her publication Conserving The Great Blue. This two hour long seminar has been […]

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Commonwealth Nations agree to a Blue Charter to tackle global ocean issues

The Commonwealth Secretariat News Release, 20th April 2018, reports: Commonwealth leaders today agreed on a bold, co-ordinated push to protect the ocean from the effects of climate change, pollution and over-fishing. Their landmark decision to adopt a Commonwealth Blue Charter will affect one third of the world’s national coastal waters, helping to sustain livelihoods and […]

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UK Seas in Crisis : Will Brexit change things?

Note: This article was commissioned by The Marine Quarterly which has agreed to the publishing of an abridged version in its Summer edition. The decline in both the health and diversity of life of British seas is a subject much reported upon. Yet in addressing the meaning of Brexit in this context it is first […]

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Marinet makes submission to Welsh Government’s MPA public inquiry

Marinet has responded, February 2017, to the formal questionnaire issued by the Welsh Assembly aimed at enquiring about the effectiveness of management of marine protected areas (MPAs) in Wales. Marinet’s full response can be seen here. The objectives of the Welsh Assembly inquiry are: To assess the management of Welsh marine protected areas with a […]

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Will EU marine legislation continue to apply once Brexit becomes operational?

The consultancy ABPmer has produced an assessment of which of the existing EU laws will continue to apply to the UK following Brexit, and which will not. If the UK remains wholly within the EU’s Single Market, then most of the existing EU laws will continue to apply. However the consultancy has also considered the […]

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EU Parliament petitions the Commission to ban microbead plastics

A small group of MEPs, see below, has drawn up a parliamentary petition aimed at the EU Commission which seeks to ban the use of microbead plastics in commercial products. Microbead plastics, which are too small to be seen by the naked eye, are now regularly used in commercial products such as toothpastes, shampoos and […]

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EU Parliament undermines CFP reform

Reuters reports, 28th April 2015: “European lawmakers have backed reforms meant to end decades of over-fishing, but critics said unscrupulous fishermen would be able to carry on throwing away perfectly good fish because of a glaring loophole. “The European Union in 2013 agreed to reform the bloc’s common fisheries policy in an attempt to rebuild […]

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Greenpeace secures judicial review of how UK fishing quotas are distributed

Greenpeace press report, 24th April 2015, states: “A full judicial review into the government’s decision to continue to give nearly the entire UK fishing quota to domestic industrial and foreign corporations, at the expense of local, low impact fishermen, has been given the green light by the High Court today. “Mrs Justice Andrews granted permission […]

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Institute of Fisheries Management issues statement on Sea Bass

The Institute of Fisheries Management issued the following statement on proposals and actions relating to the management of Sea Bass: “The European sea bass, Dicentrarchus labrax, is a vulnerable species in a changing and dynamic climate. A combination of slow growth, late maturity, spawning aggregation, and strong site fidelity increases the vulnerability of bass to […]

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Deep Sea Conservation Coalition mounts a new campaign to end deep sea fishing

The Deep Sea Conservation Coalition has announced, October 2014, a new campaign and published a leaflet to end deep sea fishing in UK and EU seas. The leaflet states: “Most of the targeted fishing for deep-sea species in UK waters is carried out by French and Spanish fleets. These fleets are primarily fishing in UK […]

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Marinet’s concerns confirmed: Dutch trawler keeps rewards of illegal haul

Sea Fish Magazine reports, 11th March 2015: “It has been reported that the owner of a Cornelis Vrolijk super-trawler, caught fishing illegally in south-west England, has been allowed to sell its haul for £437,000 while being fined a fraction of the profits, The Times reports. “The Frank Bonefaas was found to be carrying 632,000 kilos […]

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Spanish Government acts against alleged IUU fishing

Oceana reports, 12th March 2015: “The Spanish Government has announced the launch of ‘Operation Sparrow’, an investigation into several companies for alleged links with illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing activities. “If the investigation finds links to IUU fishing, including financial connections, it could lead to the imposition of significant fines on Spanish companies and […]

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Show you care about our seas enough to ask for more democracy in UK marine licensing

Marine Licensing is the process for getting planning permission to dig, dump or build something at sea. However, communities currently have no rights to challenge the regulator’s decisions. If you want more protection for our seas, please reply to an important Department of Environment (DEFRA) consultation, before the deadline of 25th February 2015. Unusually, DEFRA […]

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Governments take very cautious steps toward a UN Treaty governing the High Seas

The Environmental News Service reports, 27th January 2015: “Government representatives from around the world agreed 24th January 2015 to develop the first legally-binding agreement to conserve marine life in the high seas and international seabed, an area covering roughly half the planet. After four days of intense deliberations at UN Headquarters in New York, delegates […]

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DEFRA Consultation on Marine Licensing

Amanda Furlonger of Marine Environment Strategy and Evidence, email hidden; JavaScript is required, advises us that DEFRA has just published a consultation on proposals to change how some complex marine licence cases are decided, these applying to English waters and the offshore areas of Wales and Northern Ireland, where the Secretary of State, Liz Truss, […]

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