» Fisheries



EU Parliament votes to ban commercial electric pulse trawling for fish

BBC News reports, 16th January 2018: Members of the European Parliament have voted to ban commercial fishing using an electric current in EU waters, so-called pulse fishing. Opponents say the method is equivalent to putting a Taser in the water. The European Commission and the Dutch government say it is better for the environment than […]

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Seas-At-Risk organisation evaluates new fishing proposals, including electric pulse fishing

Seas-At-Risk press release, 21st November 2017: The European Parliament Fisheries Committee [has taken a decision which] seriously weakens marine environmental legislation. The European Parliament Fisheries Committee today [21st November] voted on a proposal that will revise legislation on the protection of fisheries resources and marine ecosystems. The proposal merges more than 30 existing regulations and […]

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Concerns rise over electric pulse fishing, say small boat fishermen

Lifeplatform.eu reports 5th September 2017: A meeting in Nieuwpoort, Belgium on 1st September, organized by Belgian inshore fisherman Jan De Jonghe and attended by a variety of commercial fishermen from the UK, Belgium and Holland as well as staff from the Low Impact Fishers of Europe Platform [LIFE] and researchers from the Marine Institute, highlighted […]

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EU Parliament’s Fishing Committee votes to legalise electric pulse sea fishing

Thejournal.ie reports 26th November 2017: A branch of the European Union has voted to allow an untested type of fishing that sends electric shocks through the seabed. The European Parliament fisheries committee decided to allow “electric pulse” fishing to be considered conventional, a move which would allow EU states to licence it like any other […]

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Electric pulse sea fishing explained : the practice and the law

Britishseafishing.co.uk reported in 2012, updated 2017: Pulse trawling (also known as electro trawling and electric pulse trawling) is a technologically advanced — and highly controversial — method of commercial fishing which has only been used on an experimental basis up until now, but appears to making a major breakthrough into mainstream commercial fishing across Europe’s […]

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Wildlife Trusts call for new UK Marine Strategy following Brexit

The Wildlife Trusts, October 2017: A unique chance for the UK to become a world leader in marine management. Seize the moment! In 2019 the UK plans to leave the European Union. While it is important that we retain existing EU law through the Withdrawal Bill and anticipated Fisheries and Agriculture Bills, this departure is […]

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Fisheries monitoring regime for UK vessels post-Brexit is proposed by WWF

WWF News Release, 26th October 2017: WWF has launched a new report which reveals that the UK and devolved governments are not comprehensively monitoring UK fishing activities at sea. A pioneering and far more cost effective alternative — Remote Electronic Monitoring (REM) with cameras and sensors — is available however, that could make the UK […]

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Sea beds take years to recover from bottom trawling, say scientists

Nature.com reports 20th July 2017: Trawling the bottom of the ocean can strip up to 41% of invertebrate life from the sea bed, and ocean floors can take more than six years to recover. Globally, around one-quarter of wild-caught seafood comes from bottom trawling, but the impact of this type of fishing has been unclear. […]

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UK to re-establish exclusive control over fisheries out to 12 nautical miles

Dept. for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) reports 2nd July 2017: The United Kingdom will take an historic step towards delivering a fairer deal for the UK fishing industry by triggering the withdrawal from an arrangement that has allowed foreign countries access to UK waters, Environment Secretary Michael Gove has confirmed. As part of […]

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Devon Wildlife Trust wants strong controls on Wrasse being captured by salmon farming industry

The Devon Wildlife Trust reports, 26th June 2017: Devon Wildlife Trust is calling for the immediate ban on live capture of all wrasse species in the South West from within Marine Protected Areas. Wrasse are being captured live from our coastline in very high numbers and transported to Scotland where they are used to control […]

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Dutch trawler fined £168,000 for 13 fishing offences

The Marine Management Organisation reports, 13th June 2017: On 7th June 2017 Kafish B.V. a Dutch company which owns the UK registered trawler Margriet LT36 and its master, Dutch national Peter Kuyt, pleaded guilty to 13 breaches of the Sea Fish (Conservation) Act 1967 and the Fisheries Act 1981 at North Tyneside Magistrates’ Court. The […]

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Is Cod returning to Newfoundland, Canada?

The National Post reports, 23rd March 2017: There’s a huge biological change happening on the banks that extend off Newfoundland and Labrador’s north-eastern coast. The northern cod are coming back. And they’re eating the shrimp that had taken over their home range off the northern Grand Banks of the Labrador Coast.     The return […]

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Tension between Scottish inshore trawlermen and creel fishermen comes to the surface

BBC News (Scotland) reports, 14th June 2017: Creel fishermen are calling for a massive change in the way west coast of Scotland fisheries are managed. Their industry body has put a case to the Scottish government for trawlers to be banned from inshore waters. They have also asked that the trawlers’ allocation of prawns be […]

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Scottish government accused of colluding to conceal pesticide pollution from fish farms

The Sunday Herald (Scotland) reports, 5th June 2017: The Scottish Government has allowed a US drug company to secretly rubbish a scientific study blaming one of its pesticides for killing wildlife in Scottish sea lochs. The Sunday Herald has uncovered that the £76 billion New Jersey multinational, Merck, hired reviewers to criticise evidence in a […]

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Nine of world’s largest fishing companies sign agreement to fish sustainably

The Guardian reports, 9th June 2017: Nine of the world’s biggest fishing companies have signed up to protect the world’s oceans, pledging to help stamp out illegal activities, including the use of slave labour, and prevent over-fishing. The initiative is part of the UN Ocean Conference in New York, the first conference of its kind […]

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C.O.A.S.T. offers a UK election marine agenda which the politicians largely failed to debate

 The Community of Arran Seabed Trust asks in its June Newsletter: Do our politicians care about coastal communities and healthy seas? Time to embrace sustainable alternatives: Little has been said during the election about one of the biggest issues facing coastal communities — the health of the marine environment. Ironically, only Donald Trump has succeeded in putting […]

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Oceana reports on over-fishing in UK and Irish Seas, and the lost opportunity

Oceana Press Release, 29th May 2017: An overhaul of current fisheries management could result in 87% more fish being caught in the Atlantic waters around the UK, Ireland and the north-west of France if governments stop overfishing, marine conservation organisation Oceana has announced. According to a scientific study on the status and potential of fish […]

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EU Member nations likely to want access to UK fishing grounds after Brexit

The Guardian reports, 18th April 2017: The British government’s plan to “take back control” of its waters after leaving the EU is about to be challenged by a claim from Denmark that its fishermen have a historical right to access to the seas around Britain dating back to the 1400s. Officials in Copenhagen have mined […]

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NEF reports that still only half the fish the EU eats comes from EU stocks

The New Economics Foundation reports, March 2017: Despite recent gains in terms of fish stock recovery, a number of European Union (EU) fish stocks remain over-fished, which means they produce less than if they were harvested at their maximum sustainable yield (MSY). Simultaneously, fish consumption throughout Europe remains high (22.5kg per capita, per year). The […]

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NEF reports EU still fishing at levels beyond scientific advice

The New Economics Foundation reports, April 2017 : Fisheries ministers risk damaging our natural resources beyond repair by consistently setting fishing limits above scientific advice. This is our third year running of a series of briefings to identify which member states are standing in the way of more fish, more profits, and more jobs for […]

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