A workshop held in Tangier by the General Fisheries Council of the Mediterranean (GFCM) within the framework of the 2016 Forum of Marine Protected Areas in the Mediterranean, and by the Network of Marine Protected Area Managers in the Mediterranean (MedPAN), reiterates the role played by MPAs.
The establishment of the world’s largest MPA to date in the Ross Sea area of the Antarctic has been welcomed by both green organisations and fishing companies and organisations.
Proposals to close the Hauraki Gulf and Marlborough Sounds to commercial fishermen have been criticised by New Zealand’s commercial fishermen as a cynical vote-gathering move.
Europêche president Javier Garat has pointed out that Marine Protected Areas are tools to be used towards specific objectives, not objectives themselves, commenting in response to the IUCN motion for 30% of waters of globally to be placed off-limits.
The Seafood Harvesters of America has criticised the Obama government decision to establish the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument.
The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council has agreed to a resolution that asks the US government to address a suite of concerns before acting on the proposed expansion on the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument (MNM) in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. The proposed monument expansion could prohibit commercial tuna fishing by US vessels in two-thirds of US offshore waters around Hawaii.
Sweden’s Marine and Water Authority (HaV) is focusing on more protected areas, with a target of 10% of the marine environment under protection by 2020.
Hawaii’s Hunting Farming and Fishing Association has set up a petition asking the President of the US not to extend the North-West Hawaiian Island Marine Monument from 50 miles to 200 miles around the islands, claiming that such an extension would have devastating impacts on small business, fisheries, and culture without justification or public input.
Proposals to lock more than a million square kilometres of ocean into a vast marine protected area (MPA) have been hit by setbacks as the Austral Islands question why such an arrangement is needed. The proposals are for an area around the southernmost islands of French Polynesia to become an MPA, but the process has received far from unanimous support from the islands’ government.
A Belgian-flagged bulk carrier remains at anchor in the lee of the Isle of Arran, having been there for more than a week.
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