Rome, Italy – November 4, 2024 – As the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) convenes in Rome, the Med Sea Alliance, alongside its members Oceana and the Environmental Justice Foundation, is urging member countries to take immediate action to safeguard Mediterranean fisheries. With illegal fishing and depleted fish stocks posing critical threats, the Alliance is calling for decisive measures on compliance, transparency, and at-sea monitoring.
Crucial step towards building a culture of compliance
Split, Croatia, November 10, 2023:– NGOs today commended the decision by Mediterranean states to create a sanction system that will empower the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) to take action against countries which continue overfishing or illegal fishing, calling it “a crucial step towards building a culture of compliance, which is essential to start rebuilding Mediterranean fish populations”.
New Measures Would Allow Authorities to tackle non-compliance and illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing
Split, Croatia, November 6, 2023:– As officials from Mediterranean countries gather this week for the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) annual session in Croatia, NGOs are urging the adoption of a system of corrective measures that would allow the GFCM to tackle illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing and cases of non-compliance within its region – a call backed by a legal analysis published this week that shows that GFCM has the competency to impose such measures [1].
Med Sea Alliance Side event at MedFish4Ever in Malta, October 3, 2023 Calling for decisive action to strengthen transparency, compliance, and the enforcement of measures to end illegal bottom trawling
Ministers Meeting for MedFish4Ever High Level Conference on Mediterranean Protection in Malta
MedFish4Ever NGO Side Event to Present Findings – See Below
As fisheries ministers gather in Malta today for the high-level MedFish4Ever conference, NGOs called on them to end the illegal bottom trawling that is driving destruction of protected areas in the Mediterranean, by strengthening compliance and enforcement ahead of November’s General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) annual session in Croatia [1,2].
Times of Malta, 03 October 2023: “Mediterranean fish forever Ministers meeting in Malta this week must end illegal bottom trawling, which would be a win-win for fish stocks and fishing communities”
A Call to Action for the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean
Taking decisive action to end bottom trawling in the Mediterranean Sea in areas where it is already banned, and hence considered illegal, should be a top priority for all GFCM Contracting Parties responsible for promoting sustainable fisheries and protecting marine biodiversity. First, it is vital to recognise that not only is illegal bottom trawling taking place in the Mediterranean, but this destructive practice is putting ecosystems and livelihoods at risk, and that many protection measures currently exist only “on paper” – i.e., without full enforcement. Second, urgent steps must be taken to end illegal bottom trawling by strengthening transparency, compliance, and the enforcement of GFCM measures.To help accelerate government action, several member organisations of the Med Sea Alliance (MSA) have joined forces toexamine and expose illegal bottom trawling and recommend concrete solutions to both national authorities and the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM).
2 November 2022: Members of the Med Sea Alliance, a diverse coalition of NGOs, today launched a new data atlas which, for the first-time, maps areas permanently closed to bottom trawling across the Mediterranean and investigates illegal trawling in these areas.
The Atlas is an online tool that maps presumed and confirmed infringements of bottom trawling in areas where it is permanently banned to protect sensitive habitats and depleted fish stocks. The Atlas has been released ahead of the 45th meeting of the GFCM*, the fisheries management body responsible for the Mediterranean. During the period of January 2020 – December 2021, the Atlas recorded incidents of possible bottom trawling in 35 closed areas by 305 different apparent vessels across 9518 apparent days of fishing activity (based on Global Fishing Watch data¹) and 169 cases of confirmed infractions between 2018 and 2020, based on MedReAct research on media outlets and information released by national control authorities.
This week, ministers from all 164 member countries of the World Trade Organization (WTO) failed once again to curb harmful fisheries subsidies that lead to overfishing at the 12th Ministerial Conference in Geneva, Switzerland. While Oceana says that eliminating harmful subsidies is the greatest single action that can be taken to protect the world’s oceans, the WTO has continually failed to reach a meaningful agreement since initially taking up the issue at the 2001 Doha Ministerial Conference. Since then, governments have spent over USD $400 billion globally on harmful fisheries subsidies, according to Oceana estimates.
Legalising misreporting of catches will threaten fisheries and undermine the EU’s credibility when pushing for sustainable fishing worldwide, write Steve Trent and Stella Nemecky
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