European Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Joe Borg has welcomed the continued progress made by the North West Atlantic Fisheries Organisation (NAFO) on the conservation of the marine environment at its 30th Annual Meeting held in Vigo, Spain, this week. The Commissioner underlined the advances that NAFO’s decisions will make to meeting the ambitious targets set by the United Nations General Assembly in December 2006 regarding the protection of vulnerable marine ecosystems.
“As agreed in May this year, NAFO has agreed to put in place very strict conditions that need to be satisfied before the opening of any new fisheries in the NAFO area. This will avoid damage to deep-water marine ecosystems, and in particular corals and sponges. This places NAFO at the forefront of Regional Fisheries Management Organisations in preventing harm to fragile environments.”
This week’s annual meeting also saw further progress in the modernisation of the organisation. Management policies have now been put in place that will lead not only to greater protection of the marine environment but also to greater sustainability for fish stocks in the NAFO area. The meeting also adopted a range of decisions on conservation measures to ensure sustainable fishing. The key decisions in that regard for the EU are the maintenance of the current catch limits for Greenland halibut and an increase in the catch limit for shrimp.
The North-West Atlantic Fisheries Organisation (NAFO) was established in 1979, with the objective of contributing to the optimum utilisation, rational management and conservation of the fishery resources within the Convention Area. Its current Contracting Parties are Canada, Cuba, Denmark (in respect of the Faroe Islands and Greenland), the European Union (EU), France (in respect of St. Pierre et Miquelon), Iceland, Japan, Republic of Korea, Norway, Russia, Ukraine and the United States of America (USA).
