Denmark’s parliamentary parties have reached an agreement on annual state leasing and auction of fishing rights, including the auctioning of unused quotas and taxation on quotas, a move that the Danish Fishermen’s Association is deeply dissatisfied with.
While supporting the work of CITES to ensure that international trade does not threaten the survival of marine species, Europêche President Javier Garat has stated that species such as mako sharks are already sufficiently protected and regulated. He was commenting on the listing of mako sharks under CITES Appendix II, which lists species not necessarily threatened with extinction, but in which trade must be controlled in order to avoid utilisation incompatible with their survival.
The Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) has been awarded the top prize in the 2019 Stop Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing competition.
Ireland’s Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Michael Creed has launched the Strategy for the Irish Inshore Fisheries Sector 2019-2023 on behalf of the National Inshore Fisheries Forum. The Strategy is designed to frame the work of the Inshore Fisheries Forums over the next number of years and represents the first time the inshore fisheries sector has developed its own sector-specific plan.
With only a few weeks to go and the terms of the UK’s departure from the European Union still very unclear, NFFO chief executive Barrie Deas said that fishing has a higher profile than it has had for years.
Ireland’s Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Michael Creed, has met Irish fishing industry representatives in the National Seafood Centre, Clonakilty to discuss the state of play on Brexit and possible serious impacts facing the sector.
On behalf of the South African government, Minister Senzeni Zokwana has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with his Namibian counterpart, Minister Bernard Essau. This represents an agreement between the two neighbouring countries to work together in various matters concerning fisheries as the two countries share a common border.
The 2018 Employment in the UK Fishing Fleet report has been published by Seafish, presenting data on the nationality, gender, age, qualification, work pattern and ways of paying workers in the UK catching sector on board and onshore.
At a meeting held in Agadir this week, Russia and Morocco have agreed terms for fisheries and co-operation for 2019, with an increase in the Russian fleet’s quotas for horse mackerel, anchovy, sardine and sardinella in Moroccan waters up by 10,500 tonnes to 140,000 tonnes.
European fishing industry body Europêche is taking steps to highlight the importance of the fisheries sector as a major food source, the basis of the livelihoods of millions of people and a driver for sustainable growth, ahead of European Parliament elections in May 2019.