European policy makers reached a provisional agreement today on how to structure the 6.1 billion EUR budget of the next European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund (EMFAF) 2021-2027.
Marine environmental organisations have expressed dismay at the continued inaction of the European Commission, France and Spain, in the face of thousands of expected dolphin deaths in fishing nets in the Bay of Biscay this winter. The season in which these needless and cruel deaths peak starts today.
Governments have backtracked on their own commitments to urgently reduce climate-heating emissions from the shipping sector, at a key meeting of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) held virtually this week.
As the first virtual meeting of the International Maritime Organization’s Marine Environment Protection Committee (IMO, MEPC 75) opens today, the Clean Arctic Alliance implored member states to amend and improve its draft ban on the use and carriage of heavy fuel oil (HFO) in the Arctic [1] or risk implementing a “paper ban” - a weak regulation that will leave the Arctic exposed to a greater risk of oil spills and black carbon pollution from HFO in the future, as shipping in the region increases.
Member countries of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) must not backtrack on their own commitments to urgently decarbonise the shipping sector at a key meeting held virtually next week.
Responding to the European Commission’s proposal for deep sea fishing limits for 2021-2022, published today [1], NGOs welcome the positive steps towards following scientific advice. However, the proposal does not go far enough to ensure protection and allow the recovery of these very sensitive and unique species, some of which are the most vulnerable known to humankind. NGOs urge European decision-makers to set fishing limits for deep sea fish populations in line with scientific advice, the precautionary approach and considering the negative impact of fishing for these species on fragile deep-sea ecosystems [2].
The European Parliament’s Committee on the Environment (ENVI) has voted in favour of key steps to bring more transparency to fisheries activities and traceability to seafood supply chains. These amendments to the revision of the fisheries Control Regulation, the foundation for how fishing activities of the EU fleet are managed, mark a pivotal step to secure sustainable seafood and healthy marine ecosystems in the EU.
Proposed International Maritime Organization ban would allow exemptions and waivers resulting in 84% of Arctic shipping continuing to burn HFO in the Arctic, and permitting 70% of vessels to still carry HFO as fuel.
Responding to the publication of the European Commission’s proposal for Baltic Sea fishing limits for 2021, NGOs today called on EU Baltic state governments to adopt most of the Commission’s proposed measures - and to go a step further by putting a stop to overfishing of Baltic herring [1].
A new report released today by Brussels-based NGO Seas at Risk highlights the financing of both harmful fishing practices and potential increased overcapacity - leading to overfishing [1] and loss of marine biodiversity, in the allocation of certain subsidies from the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) [2].
Seas At Risk released a new report exploring how the allocation of certain subsidies from the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) can lead to financing of harmful fishing practices and potential increased overcapacity, causing overfishing and loss of marine biodiversity. In particular, the report’s findings indicate that subsidies that cover operational costs, such as funds for the young fishers scheme (Article 31), can turn out to be harmful subsidies, as the safeguards attached to them are not sufficient or properly applied and enforced to prevent their damaging consequences.
Today, the European Commission published a report assessing the progress with the implementation of the EU’s Marine Directive [1], adopted in 2008. The report comes out just as the European Environment Agency paints a dire picture of the state of European seas in its new Marine report. Marine life, from seabed to sea birds, is suffering: 79% of the EU’s coastal seabed is damaged by bottom-trawling, up to 53% of sharks, rays and skates are threatened by bycatch and marine mammals’ condition has been in sharp decline since 2009.
Responding to the publication of annual scientific advice for EU fishing limits for 2021 in the Baltic Sea by ICES (International Council for the Exploration of the Sea), which finds important Baltic fish populations remain in a state of crisis, and the entire Baltic Sea ecosystem in very poor health [1], a group of NGOs are demanding that the European Commission and national fisheries ministers adhere to ICES expert scientific recommendations for zero fishing of western Baltic herring and eastern Baltic cod for 2021, to end overfishing of all other species, and commit to increased focus on ecosystem and climate considerations.
Scientists from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) have published landmark advice today, warning the European Commission that immediate action is needed to protect two critically vulnerable marine species. A group of NGOs has welcomed the move, which came in response to their major intervention last year.
IMO must act to stop new “Super Pollutant” shipping fuels in Arctic and globally. Urgent questions to be answered by oil and marine fuel industry
A group of ocean experts, including the UN Special Envoy for the Ocean, scientists and NGOs convening for a COP25 event today in Madrid, How can Ending Overfishing Mitigate Climate Change?, have called for immediate action by governments worldwide to end overfishing in order to mitigate the impacts of climate change on the world’s oceans.
London, 15th November 2019. The lack of progress and low ambition shown at this week’s round of negotiations to reduce shipping’s contribution to the climate crisis is deeply concerning and disappointing, the Clean Shipping Coalition (CSC) has said. Two years after agreeing its initial greenhouse gas strategy, a meeting of the UN maritime agency, the IMO, did little more than review options already on the table and gave far too much time to technical measures that will deliver too little too late.
In the first major vote of the new European Parliament's Committee on Fisheries, its 28 members have today decided to reopen the floodgates of overfishing in Europe. (1) By 20 votes against 6 (and 2 abstentions), they confirmed the catastrophic position adopted by the former Parliament in April 2019 (2). Among other things, this position reintroduced public aid for building new vessels, although such subsidies were banned in 2004 because of their direct role in overfishing.
On the eve of the latest round of UN ship climate negotiations at the International Maritime Organisation in London, a new report published by Seas at Risk and Transport & Environment has highlighted how slower ship speeds would massively reduce the damage shipping is causing to human health, nature and the climate.
Following news that the EU Agriculture and Fisheries Council (AGRIFISH) has today set five out of ten fishing limits for fish caught in the Baltic Sea, far above the EU fisheries legal requirements for sustainable fishing levels in 2020, conservation NGOs have expressed their outrage, accusing EU governments of acting with no regard to the law, and ignoring the ongoing overfishing and devastation of the Baltic Sea’s ecosystem.
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