Elements with tag tuna
Europêche, the leading trade body representing the fishing industry in Europe, strengthens its team to boost the organisation’s support for sustainable tuna fishing and to promote the voice of the sector in wider EU and international decision making. Newly founded Europêche’s tuna group will advocate the interests of the EU and associated tuna freezer purse-seine fleet to enhance business competitiveness, improve the image of the sector, contribute to sustainable ocean governance, support the fight against IUU and labour abuse, and achieve an international level playing field.
Large pelagic drift nets, are nets of over 2,5-kilometer-long and many meters deep, that are left drifting in the ocean to catch any living creature that happens to swim by. The international community and the EU have long adopted a global moratorium on all large-scale pelagic drift-nets fishing in the world’s oceans and seas, especially to catch migratory species such as tuna. However, their use is still overspread, especially in the Indian Ocean, responsible nowadays for around 20% of the total catches of yellowfin tuna and high levels of by-catch of threatened and protected species such as sharks, marine mammals and turtles. The tuna fishing industry represented by Europêche calls on the EU and IOTC parties to stop turning a blind eye on this long-lasting problem and make a stand against these illegal practices during the next IOTC meeting.
810.000 tonnes of imported fish will annually benefit from massive tariff derogations regardless of their origin, way of production, sustainability of the stock, labour standards or even if the third country has been identified by the EU for illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
Europêche has presented today a request to the European Commission for the initiation of an anti-dumping investigation concerning imports of tuna processed loins - mainly skipjack - originating in China, which are causing serious economic damage to the European fishing industry. The information furnished by Europêche to the European authorities discloses the existence of unlawful aids and tax breaks allegedly granted by the Chinese Administration to the Chinese exporters of both tuna loins and canned tuna. The European fishing sector urges the EU to eliminate any present and future tariff derogations granted to tuna loins, which mainly come from China, to mitigate further market and economic disruption.
The newly elected chair of the European Parliament Committee on Fisheries (PECH) Pierre Karleskind (Renew Europe, FR), was guest of honour at last week's Europêche General Assembly meeting to discuss the many pressing issues faced by the fishing sector.
NGO Position on Collective-Best-Practices-for-Well-Managed-FAD-Fisheries
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Revised DRAFT LDAC Guidelines on Best Practices for Tuna PS Fisheries_March2019
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This week, the Council adopted a regulation setting autonomous EU tariff quotas (ATQs) for certain fishery products for the years 2019 and 2020. The ATQ regulation covers species such as tuna, Alaska pollack, cod or flatfish for which a relatively high volume can be imported from non-EU countries at a reduced or zero-duty tariff. Up to 750.000 tonnes of fish will benefit from this scheme and will enter the European markets regardless of their origin, way of production, sustainability of the stock, labour standards or even if the third country has been identified by the EU for illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. Europêche believes that, in many cases, ATQs serve the sole purpose of getting a better price from non-EU producers, while putting pressure on EU producers’ prices and employment.
Earlier this year, a group of researches claimed that fishing activities occurred in 55% of the world’s oceans [1]. As a result, their study found that the area fished is four times bigger than the area occupied by agriculture in terms of square kilometres. Europêche then argued that the study was based on scientifically unsound data [2], overestimating the proportion of the seabed where fishing occurs. A new scientific research developed by the Department of Marine Sciences and Fisheries of the University of Washington evidences this by showing that when low-resolution data are replaced by high-resolution data, the true footprint of fishing is revealed to be less than 4%. Science confirms that fishing continues to hold the first place as the lowest impact production method.
En preparación de la 24ª reunión de la Comisión Internacional para la Conservación del Atún Atlántico (CICAA), que tendrá lugar en Malta desde el 10 hasta el 17 de noviembre de 2015, Europêche ha revelado sus propuestas para las diferentes especies de atún, pez espada y tiburones. En su calidad de observador, Europêche defenderá las siguientes consideraciones para garantizar la sostenibilidad tanto de las poblaciones de peces que de la industria pesquera europea.
Europêche estime qu’il y a assez de longes de thon venant de la flotte de l’Union et de pays bénéficiant d’accès en franchise de droits au marché européen. Europêche soutient également qu’il existe d’autres espèces variées comme le carrelet, le pangasius, le colin d’Alaska ou le tilapia utilisés communément comme substitut et bénéficiant également d’exonérations sur l’importation malgré une amélioration des stocks.
La industria pesquera atunera de la UE acoge con satisfacción la nueva política diseñada para ayudar a la mejora continua de la sostenibilidad de los métodos de pesca, comprometiéndose a limitar el número de dispositivos de concentración de peces (FADs) que puede ser utilizado por cualquier barco pesquero.
Europêche considera que existen suficientes lomos de atún procedentes de la flota comunitaria y de los países con acceso libre de aranceles a la UE. Europêche también sostienen que hay otras especies como la platija, panga, abadejo de Alaska y tilapia comúnmente utilizados como productos sustitutivos que también se benefician de las importaciones libres de aranceles a pesar de una importante mejora en los stocks comunitarios.
The EU tuna fishing industry has welcomed a major new policy designed to aid the continued improvement of the sustainability of fishing methods, agreeing to limit the number of Fish Aggregating Devices (FADs) that can be used by any one vessel.
The control rule on margin of tolerance is currently incompatible with the conditions and specificities inherent to the fishing operations in the tropical tuna purse seine fishery. Crushed by heavy sanctions, EU tuna vessels operating in the Indian and Atlantic Oceans might disappear in the very near future.