Low Impact Fishers Of Europe (LIFE) has hit out at the European Commission for its failure to publicly inform and to consult concerned fishermen on proposals intended to protect eel stocks.
European fishing industry body Europêche has voiced its disappointment at the EU Council’s adoption of a regulation that could bring up to 750,000 tonnes of fish products into the EU from third countries at a reduced or zero-duty tariff. Europêche believes that, in many cases, these ATQs serve the sole purpose of getting a better price from non-EU producers, while putting pressure on EU producers’ prices and employment.
The Faroe Islands and the EU have agreed on reciprocal access for 2019, striking agreements with the EU, Russia and Greenland in recent weeks.
Síldarvinnslan’s pelagic vessel Börkur landed 2100 tonnes of blue whiting in Neskaupstaður yesterday, and was back to sea as soon as discharging was complete. The company’s other vessels have also been fishing well as the year approaches its end.
The reciprocal access agreement struck between the EU and the Faroe Islands hasn’t been universally welcomed, and Scottish fishermen’s organisations are furious at the outcome that allows the Faroese fleet to catch a third of its mackerel quota in EU waters.
Human Rights at Sea has published a commissioned report undertaken by the charity’s not-for-profit trading consultancy Human Rights at Sea International Ltd, which is a comparative independent assessment of the potential risks to the welfare and human rights of fishermen operating within the Ascension Island Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) on board foreign flagged tuna longline vessels.
While the main commercial fish species in the Mediterranean and Black Sea are still over-fished, pressure has reduced over past years, according to a report published by the FAO-GFCM, which also identifies needs to reduce by-catches and discards, and to provide small-scale fishing people with greater support.
This year’s December Council of Ministers during which TACs and quotas for the year are argued out in Brussels promises to be one of the most complex ever, as well as being the last one in which the UK participates as an EU member state. According to the NFFO, ministers face a number of unpalatable choices and trade-offs.
Russian Fishery Company (RFC) continues to invest in modernising its fleet of factory vessels, most recently with upgraded processing decks providing improved production capacities and capabilities to produce higher-grade products.
Norwegian fishing company Cetus AS, based at Vea on the island of Karmøy, has placed an order for a new pelagic trawler/purse seiner to be built at Fitjar Mek. Veksted.