A multi-national operation co-ordinated by Europol and involving the Guardia Civil in Spain as well as French, Italian, Maltese and Portuguese authorities has resulted in 79 arrests and the seizure of more than 80 tonnes of illegal bluefin tuna as an illegal network handling an estimated 2500 tonnes each year has been dismantled.
Royal Greenland is reported to have agreed the sale of one of its factory trawlers to Icelandic fishing company Thorbjörn, with the handover due to take place next spring.
The owner and skipper of Wilhelmina LT-60 have been fined a total of £28,610 at Norwich Magistrates Court in in a prosecution brought by the MMO.
The EU and Cape Verde have agreed to renew the current Sustainable Fishing Partnership Agreement (SFPA) protocol, which expires at the end of the year. The outcome of the negotiations is seen as a balanced deal, profitable to both parties.
Promising early catches, strong prices and the imminent Free Trade Agreement with China has the Australian Southern Rock Lobster Industry well placed for significant export growth into Asia.
The Nodosa Shipyard at Marín in Spain has delivered over a new freezer trawler which will be sailing south to fish for squid in Falklands Islands waters.
European POs see challenging times ahead, as was made clear at the AGM of the European Association of Fish Producers Organisations (EAPO), held last week at Sopot in Poland and hosted by the organisation’s Polish membership.
Representatives of the NFFO and the Scottish Fishermen’s Federations recently joined forces for a lobby day in Parliament, ahead of key decisions on the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, and therefore the CFP, lobbying to underscore the importance of the decisions due to be taken for the UK fishing industry at national and local levels.
After long hours of discussion in Luxembourg, EU Fisheries Ministers reached an agreement on fishing opportunities for 2018 for the ten stocks in the Baltic Sea. The total allowable catches (TACs) were unanimously agreed in the framework of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) which aims to have all stocks fished at sustainable levels by 2020.
Frictionless trade and access to EU markets is essential to the survival of the Welsh fishing industry, while non-tariff barriers could deliver a killer blow according to the National Assembly’s Climate Change, Environment and Rural Affairs Committee.
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