Source: Seafood Source
The latest technical paper on catch documentation schemes from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), discusses how such schemes benefit, or could benefit, deep-sea fisheries by protecting them from illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
Continue reading High-seas illegal fishing thwarted by catch documentation schemes
Source: BLOOM
A new study published today in Frontiers in Marine Science used the data gathered by the Sea Around Us project in a unique effort to reconstruct the fish catch at global scale, to reveal that in the past 60+ years, the practice of towing giant fishing nets along the sea floor has caused the extraction of 25 million tonnes of fish that live 400 metres or more below sea level, leading to the collapse of many fish populations in a “boom and bust” pattern of exploitation.
Continue reading New Study reveals massive under-reporting of deep-sea fish catch
Source: PhysOrg
Author: Sea Around Us
A new study using the Sea Around Us‘ reconstructed catch data reveals that in the past 60+ years, the practice of towing giant fishing nets along the sea floor has caused the extraction of 25 million tonnes of fish that live 400 metres or more below sea level leading to the collapse of many of those fish populations.
Continue reading Bottom trawling causes deep-sea fish populations collapse
Source: #DeepSeaFishing
The European Parliament today (13 December) approved a Regulation establishing new rules for fishing in the North-East Atlantic, including ALDE’s support for a total ban of bottom trawling below 800 meters in EU waters. The lack of a proper regulation and the development of industrial fisheries in the EU during the last decades led to a dramatic stock depletion and destruction of marine habitat. This ban, setting a worldwide precedent, will help to protect vulnerable deep-sea marine ecosystems more effectively by setting stricter conditions on deep-sea fisheries.
Continue reading European Parliament bans trawling below 800m in EU waters
A LOT HAS BEEN ACHIEVED IN THE LAST 10 YEARS BUT WE CANNOT GIVE UP UNTIL THE JOB IS DONE.
A new report out today, reviewing ten years of international commitment to conserve biodiversity in the deep sea, finds significant improvements in our ability to prevent damage from destructive fishing practices over the last decade, but concludes that implementation of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) landmark Resolutions falls short and leaves vast parts of the ocean unprotected from destruction by deep-sea bottom trawling.
Source: The Washington Post
Author: Chelsea Harvey
The state of the world’s fish stocks may be in worse shape than official reports indicate, according to new data — a possibility with worrying consequences for both international food security and marine ecosystems.
Continue reading Why we’ve been hugely underestimating the overfishing of the oceans
The meeting of the UN FAO Committee on Fisheries (COFI) took place 2-6 March, 2009 at the headquarters of the UN FAO in Rome. COFI meets every two years to discuss major international fisheries issues as well as the work of the UN FAO related to fisheries. Over 80 countries participated in the meeting; amongst the items on the agenda was the issue of the management of deep-sea fisheries on the high seas.
On behalf of the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition (DSCC), we extend our best wishes to you for 2009.
We wish to highlight 2009 as an important year for the conservation and protection of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction. As of 31 December 2008, high seas fishing States have agreed, under UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution 61/105, to prohibit their flagged fishing vessels from bottom fishing on the high seas where regulations have not been established to implement paragraphs 83 – 86 of the resolution.
Update on the implementation of UN GA Res/61/105 With the sustainable fisheries negotiations resuming next week, below is a compilation of the latest news from recent RFMO meetings and their progress towards implementation of UNGA Resolution 61/105 paragraphs 83-86 on the protection of vulnerable marine ecosystems from high seas bottom fishing.
Since our last update in April, there is much to report with regard to protection of biodiversity in deep-sea ecosystems on the high seas. To name a few highlights: NAFO agreed on measures to implement provisions in the UNGA Sustainable Fisheries Resolution (61/105) on high seas bottom fishing; the 9th Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity endorsed scientific criteria that will be important for establishing marine protected areas in the high seas; the FAO has published an updated draft of the international guidelines for managing deep-sea fisheries and the high seas (to be finalized in August); and countries are beginning to implement interim measures in the South Pacific. The DSCC is encouraged by progress in some areas towards meeting the obligations set out in 61/105, though the devil will be in the implementation details.
