Following the positive vote in plenary by Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) on the 28th of April, MEP Jaroslaw Walesa has an ambitious mandate to negotiate with the council a new plan for managing the fisheries in the Baltic.
So what is the European Parliament’s position for the Baltic Plan?
In the upcoming EU AgriFish Council meeting on the 20th of April, Fisheries Ministers will discuss the Commission’s proposal for the Baltic multi-annual plan (MAP) [2014/0285 (COD)], and in particular the Presidency proposal for a compromise. NGOs are now urgently urging Member States to adhere to the binding objectives of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) and especially to be mindful of the Fisheries Committee vote of 31st March.
So what should Fisheries Ministers carefully address?
The European Parliament has made a move to stop overfishing in the Baltic and save marine seabirds and mammals.
We fish too much, often in the wrong places and the wrong time of the year. And whilst doing it we kill an incredible number of non-commercial fish, seabirds and marine mammals. Recently some good news has come from the European Parliament. On March 31st 2015, Members of the Fisheries Committee voted in favour of attaining Good Environmental Status (GES) of our seas by stopping overfishing and minimising the impact of fisheries activities on marine mammals and seabirds. Continue reading
EU decision makers are in the middle of a debate on how to manage Baltic commercial fish stocks (cod, herring, and sprat) and the impact of fishing activities on the wider environment – including the incidental catch of seabirds, known as seabird bycatch. But how can this be achieved concretely in the Baltic? And why are the decisions taken for the Baltic region so important for the rest of European countries? Continue reading
The European Seabird Task Force is BirdLife’s new team of seabird bycatch experts. We are working with fishermen across Europe to tackle seabird bycatch.
The establishment of the Seabird Task Force means that BirdLife International and our Partners can actively contribute to the understanding of seabird bycatch within Europe and begin to develop and adapt solutions to this problem with fishermen across the region. The Seabird Task Force is the European incarnation of the successful ‘Albatross Task Force’, a team which has been working collaboratively with fishermen to tackle seabird bycatch in southern Africa and South America. Around the world, our approach is simple and all about collaboration- we work with local fishermen to understand the seabird bycatch problem and develop solutions together. This approach builds mutual respect between the team and the fishermen, and allows an effective collaboration to take place to solve a shared environmental and…
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European Seabirds Blog 