It’s not often a female Chief of Staff is chosen to lead a joint fisheries and maritime operation between FFA Member countries and QUAD partners (Australia, France, New Zealand and USA). But Senior Constable Sepola Tataa Niulakita from Tuvalu, the first female Chief of Staff, was chosen to lead Operation Kurukuru 2018 (OPKK18), an annual FFA-led operation to combat illegal fishing in the Pacific region.
E&J Shellfish Limited, one of its directors and skipper of its fishing vessel have been sentenced for fisheries offences North Shields Magistrates Court in a case brought by the Marine Management Organisation (MMO).
Coastal states have agreed on the management of herring and blue whiting in 2019, but have failed to reach agreement on the individual shares for each nation. Next year’s Atlanto-Scandian herring TAC is decided at 588,562 tonnes, up on the 2018 TAC of 435,000 tonnes, and blue whiting TAC is 1,143,629 tonnes, slightly down on the 2018 figure.
Spanish fishing company Echebastar has been awarded MSC certification for its Indian Ocean purse seine fishery for skipjack tuna. It hasn’t been an easy ride for the Bermeo-based company, which has seen its application go through a tough process that has seen objections at various stages.
Ahead of this year’s December Council, the European Commission has laid out its proposals for 2019 TACs and quotas for Atlantic and North Sea fisheries, which for the first time will come under a full Landings Obligation that enters into force on 1st January 2019.
The European Fisheries Alliance (EUFA) has marked the first anniversary of the launch of the Santiago Declaration. A year ago representatives of coastal communities from across the European Union came together in Santiago de Compostela to take a common stand and urge decision makers to protect the economic future of their communities during the Brexit negotiations.
The New South Wales seafood industry will be showcased via a spectacular new Sydney Fish Market design which was unveiled this week. Welcoming the NSW Government’s announcement of the design by renowned Danish architects 3XN, Sydney Fish Market general manager Bryan Skepper says it is a great way to celebrate a beloved institution.
Figures released this week show the UK fishing fleet’s turnover has reached £1billion for the first time. The figures have been published by Seafish in its Economics of the UK Fishing Fleet 2017 report, which analyses the performance of the catching sector and is based on the most recent annual accounts available for fishing vessels.
Small-scale fishing organisation LIFE has welcomed the European Commission’s recognition that coastal artisanal fishing fleets should benefit from the reallocation of Bluefin tuna quota in a fair manner across all European fleets, and the proposal to reintegrate this marginalised sector into the Bluefin tuna fishery.
Funding support from Canada’s Atlantic Fisheries Fund to a variety of enterprises in Nova Scotia includes a pilot study into the effectiveness of ropeless technology for the lobster industry to reduce whale entanglements.