Fishers and vessel owners in Wales will be able to apply to a £400,000 fund from 3 April to adapt to the rapidly changing market conditions for seafood products, Rural Affairs Minister Lesley Griffiths has announced. The support is from the European Maritime Fisheries Fund (EMFF) which is co-financed by the Welsh Government and the […]
Kittiwakes, puffins and razorbills are some of England’s most treasured seabirds that could benefit from proposed measures to ban sandeel fishing, Defra has announced today (Tuesday 7 March). Sandeels are small, eel like fish that are a vital food source to vulnerable seabirds, commercially important fish species such as haddock and whiting, and sea mammals […]
Fishers on the 440 under-10m vessels subject to an annual quota cap will not face the limitation for the remainder of 2023 following a decision by Defra and Marine Management Organisation (MMO). These vessels will now be able to fish up to the monthly limits in the same way as all other under-10m vessels that […]
Marine researchers with the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research have discovered that large quantities of mackerel pressed together in a fish net can affect the fish’s quality. A new study from the Institute of Marine Research (HI) shows that fish vitality is a good measure of welfare. The marine scientists found this out by combining […]
The UK fishing industry is to benefit from an initial £2 million investment to trial new, greener engines and help create a safer, more sustainable fishing fleet as the latest round of the £100m UK Seafood Fund opens, the UK Government has announced. Older vessel engines are some of the industry’s biggest polluters and, according […]
Last week we covered the story of the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) launching a consultation on a proposed byelaw to ban bottom-towed gear in 13 MPAs to protect marine ecosystems in England. The area covered is over 4,000 km2 and combined with existing MMO byelaws, this will bring the total area protected from bottom-towed gear by MMO […]
Does biodiversity-focused protection of the seabed deliver carbon benefits? A U.K. case study Researchers have found that by using recent data on UK seabed sediment carbon and mobile bottom fishing, the current UK Marine Protected Area network is likely to offer limited carbon benefit, even if fully protected. Dr Graham Epstein of the University of […]
A new dataset of intentional disabling of Automatic Identification System devices by fishing vessels provides insights into illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing activity Data from the shipboard Automatic Identification System (AIS), which was created as a collision avoidance tool, can provide information about global fishing activity, including illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing. Fishing vessels may […]