Welcome to Through the Gaps, the UK fishing industry's most comprehensive information and image resource. Newlyn is England's largest fish market and where over 50 species are regularly landed from handline, trawl, net, ring net and pot vessels including #MSC Certified #Hake, #Cornish Sardine, handlined bass, pollack and mackerel. Art work, graphics and digital fishing industry images available from stock or on commission.
Saturday 13 March 2021
Government Plans To Revive Shellfish Exports By The Winter By Building Purification Sites In The UK
EP fisheries control vote: Two steps forward, one giant step back Published on March 11, 2021
European Parliament votes for modern and transparent fisheries, but opens grave loophole.
The EU Fisheries Control Coalition, where FishSec is a member, applauds the positive steps taken by the European Parliament towards more transparent fisheries and traceable seafood. With their vote in plenary this week, EU parliamentarians have called for all fishing vessels to report everything they catch, including sensitive and protected species, which will make data for over 49,000 EU vessels available for the first time. Further, EU vessels will be tracked through electronic monitoring tools, seafood available in the EU market will be digitally traceable from net to plate, and EU Member States will be required to report more transparently on their control measures.
At the same time, the decision to significantly backtrack on accurate reporting of seafood catches casts a dark shadow over the voting outcome, as up to 40% of catches (and up to 50% in the case of tuna) may now be omitted from the EU fleet’s records. This would undermine scientific data to evaluate the status of fish stocks, could render fisheries control efforts ineffective, and will put the last decade of progress for seafood sustainability and marine species’ recovery at serious risk – as the European Commission itself has warned.
On behalf of the The EU Fisheries Control Coalition, Marta Marrero Martin, Director of Ocean Governance at The Nature Conservancy said: “Today, MEPs displayed the courage needed to turn the tide on overfishing by voting to make Remote Electronic Monitoring mandatory on vessels that are at a high risk of not complying with the rules. This is unfortunately overshadowed by the vote to extend the so-called ‘margin of tolerance’ for fishers, which will allow up to four in ten fish to go missing from the records, signaling a huge blow for sustainability. MEPs and Member States must urgently reverse this course in their upcoming negotiations, while also going one step further by ensuring that cameras record the incidental catch of sensitive and protected species.”
Andrea Ripol, Fisheries Policy Officer at Seas At Risk said: “Today’s vote is a mixed bag for dolphins, seabirds and turtles across the EU. Even though the mandatory collection of data on incidental catches in logbooks is a bold and promising step to help reverse biodiversity loss, the rejection of Remote Electronic Monitoring for data collection on sensitive species undermines its effectiveness, as it is an essential tool to ensure the data is recorded accurately.”
Katrin Vilhelm Poulsen, Senior Seafood Policy Officer at WWF European Policy Office said: “As the EU imports the majority of its seafood, the introduction of digital traceability from sea to plate will bolster the EU’s fight against illegal fishing and lay the groundwork for providing clear information to European consumers. However, this milestone achievement in the fight against illegal fishing internationally is undermined by the parallel decision to legalise underreporting for European vessels.”
Vanya Vulperhorst, Campaign Director, Illegal fishing and Transparency at Oceana said: “We welcome the outcome that all EU vessels – including 49,000 small-scale vessels – will have to report their catches and track their location, and that Member States can no longer hide information about their control efforts from the public. But MEPs’ foolish vote in favour of fishers underreporting up to 40% of their catches risks reversing decades of recovering fish populations.”
Steve Trent, Executive Director at the Environmental Justice Foundation said: “More transparent reporting by EU Member States on their fisheries controls and abolishing their veto to publish fisheries information mean the EU can continue to be a pioneer in the effort for a transparent global fisheries sector. Yet, crucially, the giant misstep of allowing four in ten fish to go missing from the records must now urgently be remedied by MEPs and Member States in their upcoming negotiations.”
Positive outcomes from the European Parliament vote include:
- Fishing vessels of 12 metres length or more that are at high risk of discarding unwanted catches (a violation of the EU Common Fisheries Policy) will be required to use Remote Electronic Monitoring, including CCTV cameras.
- Seafood products will need to be digitally traceable from the point of catch to the point of retail, with the same requirements for products sourced from EU and non-EU countries.
- Thanks to more transparent reporting provisions, European citizens and decision makers will have more information on how EU Member States implement EU fishing rules and manage fisheries resources.
- All EU fishing vessels – including over 49,000 small-scale vessels – are required to have a location tracker and to report their catches.
The negative aspects include:
- The increased margin of error that fishers have to estimate their catches will allow up to 40% of caught seafood to go missing from the EU fleet’s records; in the case of tuna, even up to 50% of catches may now never be reported.
- The requirement of Remote Electronic Monitoring (including CCTV) on vessels to monitor and curb the bycatch of sensitive species, including dolphins, seals and seabirds, has been rejected.
With the European Parliament’s position on the fisheries Control Regulation now adopted, Members of the European Parliament, the representatives from EU Member States and the European Commission are scheduled to begin negotiations to finalise the future fisheries control system later this summer.
It is crucial that the gains secured for sustainable fishing and healthy seas in Wednesday night’s vote are maintained in the trilogue discussions. However, both MEPs and EU Member States must urgently remedy the dramatic increase in the margin fishers receive to estimate their catches. The European Commission has warned that the 40-50% of catches missing from fishers’ logbooks could jeopardise the recovery of fish stocks in European seas, putting the future of fisheries at risk and stands in stark contrast to the goals of the European Green Deal. It is now up to EU parliamentarians, EU Member States and the Commission to make sure the robustness of our fisheries control system will not be undermined by this giant misstep.
Friday 12 March 2021
The harbour is full of boats and the storm hasn't even arrived yet.
It's not just the small visiting beam trawlers chasing soles...
but also some of the biggest in the Brixham fleet like the Georgina, William and Julie of Ladram
along with the biggest beam trawler in the south west, the Enterprise...
the Charisma has had a name change to the Charisma of Ladram reflecting her change of ownership in joining the rest of the Ladram fleet...
the Lucy Too makes her way back to a berth...
plenty of work still be done on the Twilight III...
the MCA has recently posted an M Notice asking skippers to check hydrostatic releases fittings...
a sure sign the weather is poor, there's a French boat in port...
looking at the forecast the trawls on these three won't be being dragged along the sea bed for a day or two yet ...
the weather means the guys on the Unity can set to mending their twin rig trawls.
Thursday 11 March 2021
These guys need more than words.
Even when MPs get the chance to talk directly to a fishermen - in this case skipper David Stevens was sat in the wheelhouse of his trawler - they still seem unable to do anything other than espouse the party line. How on earth is that kind of response going to help him (having recently invested several million pounds in a new vessel) or all the other skippers affected by the deal? These guys don't need platitudes, the fishing support grant - if eligible - is just sticking plaster over a gaping wound.
Scale your brill and buy tinned whiting - God help us!
If it wasn't so serious, this new £200,000 advertising campaign from the Government urging the population to eat more fish would be funny - but it is not - funny that it is.
How can they get it this wrong?
For instance, the campaign material suggests:
- you need to scale brill - brill don't have scales
- you can buy tinned brill?
- you can buy tinned whiting?
- you should keep Dover sole for a few days so the flesh becomes firm
- you can buy Atlantic Wolf fish - there's never been one landed in Newlyn and there will be only a handful of UK boats, if any, catch them on a regular basis
- and you buy turbot, monkfish and scallops - well with a big enough food budget sure - buy most people to eat on a regular basis?
Wednesday 10 March 2021
Amy goes Gill netting.
for hake aboard the Joy of Ladram fishing some fifty miles south west of Newlyn...
and here she is telling the story of that first trip in her own words.
Tuesday 9 March 2021
EU fisheries can only sustainably manage fish stocks if they are accurately measured
Our regular #Spanish friend landing (probably under No @The_MMO supervision) #UkWaters 🐟 into #EU transport!! #BrexitBallsUp @MPGeorgeEustice @DerekThomasUK @DefraGovUK @DavidGHFrost pic.twitter.com/4RW8R730rq
— NewlynFishing (@NewlynFishing) March 9, 2021
As another UK flagged Spanish trawler lands her catch to a waiting lorry which will transport her fish back to Spain:
This week, Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) will take part in a vote that will prove crucial for the future of our seas and the communities that depend on them.This vote aims to amend the Fisheries Control Regulation, the EU system for monitoring, inspection and enforcement of fisheries in EU waters and the global operations of the fishing fleet of the EU. The control regulation is essential to enable fishermen, policy makers and civil society to count the fish caught in our seas and to monitor the impact of fishing activities on fragile marine ecosystems.
Any changes to these regulations should improve the sustainability and long-term prospects of our ocean and fishermen. However, if MEPs vote to accept all of the revisions currently being proposed by the European Parliament’s Committee on Fisheries (PECH), they could endorse a step backwards for EU fisheries policy.
For example, the PECH Commission proposal to increase the margin of error in reporting catches by the fishing industry could lead to massive under-reporting and overfishing and could allow up to two-fifths of the fish caught. in the EU not to be counted. This would completely undermine the EU’s biodiversity strategy and undermine the EU’s credibility as a global leader in ocean governance, including its zero tolerance approach to illegal fishing, unreported and unregulated (IUU) by countries outside the EU.
Another example concerns the committee’s proposal to reject the mandatory use of electronic technology, such as CCTV cameras, to help record fish catches, despite their successful adoption, and significant financial benefits for fishermen who do so. use in Europe and other jurisdictions such as Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States.
By adopting these methods, the EU Fisheries Control Regulation has the potential to make responsible and sustainable fishing possible in EU seas; provide not only a complete record of fish caught, but also the impact of fishing activities on sensitive and protected species such as marine mammals and seabirds.
A decision not to adopt these new technologies could see the EU fisheries sector missing out on job creation opportunities and the digital and green transition of the EU Green Deal.
The Control Regulation has been the cornerstone of the Common Fisheries Policy since 2010. However, significant weaknesses or gaps were identified by the European Court of Auditors in 2017, which called for more efforts in the control of EU fisheries, including the reliability of reported catch data.
On Wednesday, it is imperative that MEPs from all European countries vote in favor of amendments ensuring that our monitoring system accurately counts the fish in our seas and measures the impact of fishing activities on our fragile marine ecosystems. By supporting the use of these new monitoring tools, MEPs can help ensure a transition from the European Green Deal towards sustainable fisheries, healthy seas and thriving coastal communities.
The European Coalition for Fisheries Control, made up of non-profit organizations across Europe, calls on MEPs to support four key measures during the vote on the revision of the control regulation on March 10:
● Remote electronic monitoring (REM) must be made compulsory, to ensure accurate records of everything we catch, including sensitive and protected species. The REM, which includes the use of on-board cameras, is internationally recognized as a reliable, cost-effective and scalable way to support well-managed, responsible and sustainable fisheries.
● Keep track of unwanted catches, including protected and sensitive species. Dolphins, seabirds, turtles and other susceptible species die in the thousands every year due to accidental catches in EU fishing nets. By recording where and when bycatch takes place, fishermen across the EU can participate in finding solutions.
● Make sure every fish caught is taken into account. This measure runs counter to a proposal by the PECH Committee to increase flexibility that would allow up to two-fifths of catches to go unreported in official records, completely undermining accountability and accurate reporting of catches.
● Ensure transparency of EU Member States on how they control their fisheries. This measure aims to change the current scenario from a scenario where Member States can currently veto the disclosure of fisheries information for no reason, to a scenario where full transparency is required.
The EU Fisheries Control Coalition is a leading NGO alliance that works with organizations and individuals across Europe to ensure a fisheries control system that protects ocean health and resources. navies for generations to come.