With the livelihoods of millions of fishery-dependent people at risk, FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva has appealed to the international community to provide adequate support to help countries adapt and urged governments to resolve adaptation funding disputes.
The 2018 FAO State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture (SOFIA) report predicts that global fisheries production is set to pass 200 million tonnes by 2030. The current figure is 171 million tonnes, with capture fisheries at a steady level and the expected growth is in aquaculture. The overall first-sale value of all fisheries and aquaculture production in 2016 is put at $362 billion.
Environmental group World Animal Protection intends to use the 33rd Committee on Fisheries (COFI) session in Rome, taking place 9-13th July, as a platform to demand that member states of the FAO ensure that by 2025 all fishing nets should be ID tagged.
FFA director general James Movick and Australia’s Assistant Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources, Hon. Senator Anne Ruston, have signed a new 10-year partnership agreement at the annual Forum Fisheries Committee meeting at Rarotongain the Cook Islands.
Senegal and Mauritania have reached a new Memorandum of Understanding on fisheries agreement, providing Senegalse fishermen with a 50,000 tonne quota. Work is due to begin near Saint-Louis to construct facilities and an access road on the Mauritanian side of the border.
Negotiations have been in progress since 2016, but agreement has now been reached between Iceland, Greenland and Norway on capelin fisheries that take place in Icelandic waters. The previous agreement dated back to 2003.
The NFFO has welcomed the UK government’s white paper on fisheries, Sustainable Fisheries for Future Generations, outlining the vision for UK fisheries post-Brexit, stating that this is clear on the big issues and warning that the UK government is not in a position to sell out the fishing industry and survive.
Scotland’s Fisheries Secretary Fergus Ewing has blasted the government’s draft fisheries White Paper, Sustainable Fisheries for Future Generations, accusing the UK government of again failing to substantively engage with with Scotland while developing its future fisheries proposals.
A large ghost net has been removed from the Gulf of Carpentaria near Weipa in Queensland, in a joint operation between the Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) and Parks Australia.
The UK government is gearing up for the Fisheries Bill to be introduced in Parliament with a White Paper setting out its stance on how it sees fisheries issues. The ‘Sustainable Fisheries for Future Generations’ is described as a blueprint for a sustainable and profitable industry in the future. The proposals outlined are now subject to a ten-week consultation period.