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.
Iceland’s minister of fisheries Kristján Thór Júlíusson has signed off regulations regarding the Icelandic fleet’s quotas for blue whiting and Atlanto-Scandian herring for 2019. At present there is no agreement with the Faroe Islands for Icelandic vessels to catch any of these quotas in Faroese waters.
Now working for the last three weeks with a daily catch limit of 50kg, French small-scale line fishermen fear a complete closure of the bass fishery any day now, at a time of year when bass is crucial to their livelihoods.
EU Commissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Karmenu Vella will present the European Commission's proposals for 2019 fishing opportunities for the Atlantic, North Sea and Black Sea at the Agriculture and Fisheries Council on 17-18th December in Brussels.
Ahead of this week’s December Council, Scottish fishermen’s leaders have warned that the European Union countries will be guilty of vengeful behaviour if they pile pressure on UK fishermen as a result of Brexit, stating that with a fisheries agreement to be negotiated as part of the final exit settlement, it is not in the interests of the 27 EU nations to take a hard line on 2019 quotas and TACs.
The Netherlands will be pushing at this week’s December Council of Minister for a higher sole quota than that recommended by ICES, which advised a 22% reduction.
A few hours into the December Council of Minister which will set TACs and quotas for 2019, the NFFO is warning that problems associated with the Landing Obligation are unlikely to be solved by the assembled ministers.
Icelandic Fisheries Minister Kristján Thór Júlíusson has acted on the legislation that allows 5.3% of the overall quota to be held back for a range of particular purposes, including supporting coastal communities, quota markups for longliners, coastal fisheries, support for shrimp and shellfish vessels, sport fisheries and to met other temporary requirements.
The new Russian Pollock factory, a joint venture between The Russian Fishery Company (RFC) and the DV Invest, will net an additional 14,500 tonnes of pollock and herring quotas once it is operational. The factory, due to be built in the Nadezhdinskaya priority development territory near Vladivostok, represents an investment of $12-15 million.
The Commission responsible for selecting projects under Russia’s investment quotas scheme has approved 56 out of the 68 applications received. 33 new fishing vessels and 23 new fish processing plants are to be built under the investment quotas framework.