The European Parliament today concluded a long process of negotiation by voting to adopt a new regulation on deep-sea fishing, including a ban on bottom trawling below 800 meters in EU waters, and an obligation to close deep-sea areas to bottom fishing to protect vulnerable marine ecosystems (VMEs). The Parliament vote to approve the regulation paves the way for its entry into force early in the new year. The priority now is to ensure vigorous and effective implementation.
Northeast Atlantic
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
Marine conservation experts call on the European Council of Fisheries Ministers to prohibit fishing for endangered deep-sea species. The Council will meet on 14-15 November to decide on Total Allowable Catches (TACs) and quotas for deep-sea fishing in the North-East Atlantic*.
Source: Virgin Unite
Author: Claire Nouvian
Hundreds of thousands of citizens, who added their voices to a hard-fought campaign to end one of the most absurd and abominable of all fishing practices, can finally celebrate a major peoples’ victory: the European Parliament, Council and Commission have agreed to a ban on deep-sea bottom trawling.
Continue reading Defending the deep: the new EU deep-sea bottom trawling ban
BRUSSELS—Conservation organisations are welcoming the agreement reached on 30 June by the European Parliament, Council of Ministers, and European Commission on key provisions for a new European Union (EU) regulation on deep-sea fishing that includes a ban on bottom trawling below 800 metres and would close areas where vulnerable marine ecosystems are known or likely to occur.
Continue reading Decision-Makers Draw a Line Under Deep-Sea Bottom Trawling
To: Representatives of the European Parliament, Council, and Commission
December 2015
Re: Priorities for trilogue negotiations on a regulation for deep-sea fishing in the northeast Atlantic
We welcome recent progress towards agreeing a regulation to protect a uniquely vulnerable environment, three years after the European Commission issued its proposal and nearly two years since the European Parliament’s first reading was adopted.
European Parliament must now conclude negotiations with Council and Commission
The Deep Sea Conservation Coalition (DSCC) welcomes the latest milestones in a lengthy battle to protect a uniquely vulnerable environment as the European Union (EU) Fisheries Council agreed last week to support measures to limit destructive deep-sea fishing, in particular to prohibit bottom trawling below 800 metres in EU waters in the northeast Atlantic. The European Parliament, which formulated its position on the file in December 2013, agreed today to enter into negotiations with the Council to finalise a regulation.
Continue reading Europe A Step Closer To Protecting Deep Sea From Bottom Trawling
As officials meet this week to consider new EU legislation to manage deep-sea fisheries, a new scientific study highlights a pragmatic solution to protecting one of the most vulnerable environments on earth.
As the European Union Fisheries Council meets today in Luxembourg, the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition calls on Ministers to progress negotiations of a new regulation for the management of deep-sea fisheries so it may be concluded without further delay.
Continue reading DSCC calls for urgent action by EU Fisheries Ministers
Read full report here.