The French government has announced a temporary ban on almost all commercial fishing in the Bay of Biscay. The ban will begin on 22nd January and run until 20th February 2024. It will affect fishing grounds off the country’s Atlantic coast and has been introduced to protect dolphins. The campaigning group, Whale and Dolphin Conservation, has called on […]

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Marine Management Organisation (MMO) has confirmed that more than 80% of under-12m inshore vessels participated in the I-VMS roll-out programme last year, resulting in £1.3m of European funding being awarded to fishers. New legislation, a statutory instrument (SI), is expected to come into force in April 2024 and will require all under-12m vessels fishing for […]

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The IMO, the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) are boosting coordination to tackle IUU fishing. Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing is a widespread challenge that covers a range of destructive fishing practices, occurring both in the high seas and within national territorial waters. It has been identified as […]

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The EU’s most senior court has stopped short of applying overfishing rules across all EU fish stocks in a case taken by Friends of the Irish Environment (FIE) and environmental lawyers Client Earth. The EU’s Court of Justice has ruled that EU ministers will be breaking the law if they approve overfishing of target stocks, but […]

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Plymouth Marine Laboratory have launched a survey to capture responses from those in industry. Scientists currently have a poor understanding of the full socio-economic implications and conflicting pressures on marine space of the rapid expansion of offshore wind capacity. Project Lead Dr Claire Szostek said: “The survey will be open throughout December and the first week of […]

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