Adrift! Swordfish and driftnets in the Mediterranean Sea
This document presents a general overview of the use of driftnets in the Mediterranean and the results of the Oceana and MarViva campaign in order to actively contribute to the definitive elimination of this unsustainable fishing gear.
How environmental conventions can be used to protect sharks and their habitats.
Sharks, rays and chimaeras make up the group of fish known as Chondrichthyans- these fish all have skeletons made of cartilage rather than bone. In general, Chondrichthyans grow slowly, mature late and produce few young over long lifetimes. Consequently, their populations grow at extremely low rates, leaving them exceptionally susceptible to fisheries overexploitation and slow to recover from depletion. In general, sharks are more vulnerable to overfishing than the majority of bony fishes.
This has been a very successful year for Oceana and for our campaigns to restore and protect abundant oceans. Together with our allies, we have won policy changes that are essential to protecting the people who rely on healthy oceans for their food and livelihoods.
These victories are described in detail in this report. As a supporter of Oceana, you fully share in the authorship of these tangible results. Your contributions, your advice and your support continue to generate a strong return on investment.
Oceana's Sharks: Oceana wants RFMO parties in San Sebastian to commit to concrete actions
The United Nations Convention for the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS) Annex 1 lists 72 species of highly migratory sharks for which nations must cooperate to ensure conservation. The 1995 United Nations Fish Stocks Agreement redefined the basic principles for managing fisheries of highly migratory species, including sharks, and clarified that the precautionary approach and ecosystem based management has to be applied. In 2007, 141,000 tons of highly migratory sharks where caught and reported to the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations (FAO).
Sharks are extremely vulnerable species which have been fished without any management for decades. Many of these sharks are hunted in targeted commercial fisheries, especially for their valuable shark fins. Some of these sharks, targeted or caught as by-catch like hammerhead sharks (Spyhrna spp.), thresher sharks (Alopias spp.) and porbeagles (Lamna nasus) are vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered according to the IUCN. To date, there is not a single agreed catch limit or prohibition for shark catches in any of the tuna RFMOs.
Oceana's Opening Statement for Tuna and Shark Management in the RFMOs
Oceana denounces that the management of tuna and sharks fisheries is insufficient. Today, the majority of commercially important tuna stocks are overfished, some to the point of commercial collapse, and several shark species caught in fisheries are classified as Endangered or Critically Endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). This week in San Sebastian, Spain, the worlds’ five big Regional Fisheries Management Organisations (RFMOs) responsible for regulating tuna stocks will meet to discuss their failure in managing these species as well as sharks, and to agree on actions that would improve the status of these stocks.
This report presents the preliminary results of the first-ever larval survey carried out by NGOs. The summer 2008 Oceana-MarViva campaign focused on providing further evidence of active spawning sites for bluefin tuna and other associated species. Larval samples were taken in some of the most relevant bluefin tuna spawning areas in the Mediterranean Sea, including southwest Malta, the southern Tyrrhenian Sea and the Aegean Sea, onboard the research vessel Marviva-Med, from 15 July to 11 August.
According to conventional wisdom, small, fast-growing fish are impossible to overfish because their populations are so large and grow so quickly. Yet we are now seeing disquieting signs that conventional wisdom is wrong.
Most significantly, scientists are reporting ocean predators emaciated from lack of food, vulnerable to disease and without enough energy to reproduce. Scrawny predators—dolphins, striped bass, and even whales—have turned up along coastlines around the world. Recreational fishermen are losing both their target fish—and their bait. Fishing communities are losing their livelihoods.
How European nations commercialise shark products.
EU countries play a major role in the international trade of shark meat. Even if they only produced about 12% of shark meat worldwide in 2005, they were responsible for 56% of worldwide shark meat imports and 32% of worldwide exports. In 2006, the EU imported more than 40,000 tons of shark meat.
2007 was an important year for Oceana. We were able to score multiple policy victories for the oceans.
The challenge is daunting, but we are making progress. We hope you enjoy reading about Oceana's successes in 2007. They are possible only because of the generous support you provide to Oceana. Thank you! Your loyalty and friendship is vital to preventing ocean collapse.
Oceana Recommendations for the ICCAT Commission meeting November 2008
Oceana calls on the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) contracting parties, non contracting parties, and collaborating parties to urgently adopt effective management measures to restore and maintain the populations of tuna, swordfish and sharks at levels that will ensure a sustainable exploitation of these fisheries resources.
This report provides an overview of shark characteristics while highlighting their uniqueness and importance in the marine world. The many threats faced by these animals today are also detailed, and methods to ensure their future survival are presented.
Guide to European Elasmobranches
Oceana is working to achieved improved fisheries management and conservation measures to safeguard the future of sharks in Europe. This guide gives an overview of the elasmobranch species that can be found in European waters, dividing them into the seven taxonomic orders present in this region. The habitat, European range, conservation status and management instruments in place for each species is detailed.
Oceana attended last Tuesday 9th of September, a conference organized by the European Parliament under the title “a stronger dialogue between scientists and fishermen for a renovated Common Fisheries Policy”. Oceana took advantage of this opportunity to remind that 80% of scientific advice on fish quotas has been continuously ignored for the last 20 years.
European fisheries have traditionally exploited many small bottom-living coastal sharks and rays, and have recently increased their exploitation of pelagic and deep-water sharks.For stock assessments that rely on catch data, it is essential to quantify the total removals of he stocks of concern. Oceana would like to take this opportunity to provide an update on catch information we have gathered from different catch databases.
Thonaille: The use of driftnets by the French fleet in the Mediterranean 2007
This report aims to present objective and verifiable facts concerning the French fleet’s use of driftnets in the Mediterranean: the legal framework, number of vessels and characteristics of the fishery. The main objective is to provide interested stakeholders with a detailed overview of the state of the more than 92 vessels based in French Mediterranean ports that continue to use this illegal fishing gear, in order to prove that this fleet has no justifiable reason to be exempt from the ban on the use driftnets.
Italian driftnets: illegal fishing continues
The report provides a comprehensive overview of the use of driftnets in Italy, investigates the causes of the persistence of this illegal gear, analyses the possible failures in management and proposes recommendations, not only for the complete elimination of this fishing gear, but also as a contribution to the development of future management measures to be adopted within the Community fisheries policy framework.
How EU shark fleets escape regulation and undermine shark conservation around the world.
Sharks are accidentally caught in many and very different gillnet, purse seine, longline and trawl fisheries, and from small artisanal boats to giant industrial vessels. This report focuses on a few examples to show the dimension of the problem.
The corals of the Mediterranean
Occupying 1.1% of the surface of the world's oceans and 0.3% of all salt water, the Mediterranean no longer shelters the great coral reefs that thrived 60 million yeras ago. This is due to millennia of climactic and oceanographic changes. However, even today this sea harbors a spectacular array of corals, including some which are not found anywhere else.
More than 200 species of coral (from a total of 5,600 species which have been described worldwide, 500 of which are in Europe) live in the Mediterranean. Some of the species living there are endemic, while others have a subtropical origin from the warmer waters of the Atlantic. Still others are more common in arctic zones, while some are found every where.
Sharks are vulnerable species. In general, they grow slowly, mature late and produce few young over a long lifetime. Their populations typically increase at extremely low rates, leaving them exceptionally vulnerable to overexploitation and slow to recover from depletion. According to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, about one-third of European shark and ray populations assessed are considered “threatened.”
The European Union includes some of the most important shark fishing nations in the world. In 2005, EU countries caught nearly 100,000 metric tons of elasmobranches (including sharks, rays and sawfish). Spain took the largest share at around 39 per cent of the EU total, followed by France (22 per cent), Portugal (16 per cent) the UK (11 per cent).
A collaboration agreement that was establishment through the Research and Projects Department of the Fundación Biodiversidad has given Oceana the opportunity to demonstrate new criteria in support of the selection of marine habitats of interest to the European Community. The context of the project is included within our mission and exclusive dedication to researching, protecting and recuperating the oceans through investigation and scientific work, with a focus on biodiversity, the environment and sustainable marine development.
As part of a general diagnosis, the most environmentally important habitats have been identified in this report according to their unique qualities and biological and biogeographical interest. The following chapters detail research results and include proposals for representative types of natural habitats of interest to the European Community. Although the process of obtaining the data has been long and laborious, we have attempted to include extensive lists of taxonomic classifications that describe the communities associated with the identified habitats. Obviously, the lack of consistent data means priorities should be established, as a point of departure, for the development and implementation of action plans for the protection of these habitats.
The use of driftnets by the Moroccan fleet
Driftnets have been condemned by the international community and banned by various countries and different international organisations. This fishery, however, still continues in various countries around the world, causing the accidental capture and death of a large number of cetaceans, sea turtles, elasmobranchs and birds.
Furthermore, the Moroccan ports of Tangiers, Nador and Alhucemas were inspected in order to evaluate the size of the fleet. The Moroccan driftnet fleet fishing in the Straits of Gibraltar and the Alboran Sea is estimated at 150 vessels, although this number may increase considerably according to the season.
"Thonaille": the use of driftnets by the French fleet in the Mediterranean
As part of its 2006 campaign against the use of driftnets in the Mediterranean, Oceana inspected various ports along the French Mediterranean coast in order to personally verify the characteristics and activities of the fleet dedicated to the capture of bluefin tuna with gear known as "thonaille" or "courantille volante".
Oceana proposes various measures to be adopted within the framework of the Mediterranean Regulation and the driftnet definition Regulation, reflecting the organisation's position concerning the use of driftnets, in order to contribute to the definitive elimination of this fishing gear in both European and Mediterranean waters.
Italian driftnetters 2006: The OCEANA report
During June and July 2006, Oceana has travelled 1500 nautical miles on board the Oceana Ranger in order to identify, document and report the vessels in this fleet engaged in Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported (IUU) fishing in the Tyrrhenian Sea, Sicily and the south of Sardinia. Similarly, this work has been complemented by the inspection of ports in the regions of Sardinia, Campania, Calabria and Sicily, where the presence and activities related to this illegal fishing fleet have been discovered in 14 of these ports.
The implementation of the IPPC Directive in the mercury cell chlor-alkali production industry
The IPPC Directive is a binding instrument for all the Member States. It requires them to reach a specific, precise result, which is that all existing installations have an integrated permit that fulfils the minimum requirements, which includes the implementation of BATs, by 30 October 2007 at the very latest.
Northeast Atlantic Deep-sea Gillnet Fishery Management
In December 2005, the Council of European Union Fisheries Ministers agreed on a measure to close the deepwater gillnet fishery in the North-East Atlantic (NEAT)1. The temporary closure, which took effect on 1 February 2006, encompasses waters deeper than 200 meters to the north and west of Great Britain and Ireland.
This decision was made in response to the DEEPNET1 project report, highlighting the incredible waste in this fishery and the damage that it may be causing to deepwater sharks and other species. Prior to the closure, fishing with deep-sea gillnets in the North-East Atlantic had practically no legal restrictions and controlling the fishery was almost impossible. The poor selectivity of the nets and long soak times, combined with surpassed, inadequate, or nonexistent quotas, has led to the unsustainable exploitation of various fish and crustacean stocks in this region.
Shark alert: Revealing Europe's impact on shark populations
Europe is playing a lead role in the overfi shing, waste, and depletion of the world’s sharks. Despite improved management instruments and growing public concern, European Union (EU) restrictions on shark fi nning remain among the weakest in the world and no overall plan to manage EU shark fi sheries and restore depleted populations exists. Because of sharks’ importance as predators in ocean ecosystems and Europe’s strong infl uence on global fi sheries policy, EU shark fi shing regulations have a wide-reaching effect on the world’s oceans. Because of sharks’ biological vulnerability to overfi shing, mismanagement of shark populations can happen quickly and take many decades to repair.
Deep Sea Life: On The Edge Of The Abyss
The deep sea is no longer unspoiledwilderness. The damaging effectsof human activities from bottomtrawling to pollution can now beseen in every ocean.
The use of 'Rasco' gillnets in the anglerfish, king crab and deep-sea shakrs fisheries in the North-East Atlantic
The need for their urgent closure as a preventative measure and views on their future viability as a example of sustainable fishing in the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP).
The Seamounts of the Gorringe Bank
A seamount is regarded as a geological elevation that reaches a minimum of 1,000 metres in height and can consist of very different physical, geological and chemical properties. The seamounts of the Gorringe Bank were discovered in 1875 by the American exploration vessel USS Gettysburg.>>
The use of drifnets: a scandal for Europe, a mockery of the United Nations
At a meeting in June 1998, the European Union’s Council of Fisheries’ Ministers passed a Regulation1 aimed at prohibiting the use of driftnets for part of the European fleet; a regulation that was to come into force on 1 January 2002. At present, there are about 500 drift-net boats fishing in the Mediterranean and neighbouring waters. >>>
Sea turtles on the hook
One of the greatest threats to the threatened and endangered sea turtles that migrate across the Atlantic and into the Mediterranean each year are the hooks of longline fishing boats...>>>
The EU fleet and chronic hydrocarbon contamination
Almost 40% of the vessels flying the flags of one of the European Union states have shown deficiencies or committed violations of the MARPOL convention for the prevention of pollution from ships in the last four years, and this figure rises to 75% if we include all types of deficiencies...>>>
The death of cetaceans through the use of LFA sonar in naval military maneuvers
The appearance this summer of several cetaceans stranded on the coasts of the Canary Islands and the Azores while naval manoeuvres were being carried out has reopened the debate on the impact on cetaceans of sonar and other acoustic pollution arising from these exercises... >>>
The other side of oil slicks
The aim of this report is to emphasise the great volume of hydrocarbons that continue to be dumped in European seas, as well as the lack of infrastructure and legislative measures to prevent it. In addition, the report examines the current situation of compliance with international and European legislation, and puts forward proposals to address existing flaws... >>>
European trawlers are destroying the oceans
Among its almost 100,000 fishing vessels, the EU is home to a particularly damaging fleet: the 15,000 trawlers that operate in European waters, which are overexploiting marine resources and irreversibly damaging some of the most productive and biodiverse ecosystems on the planet... >>>
Oceans in danger
Humankind has been using the oceans for aeons, but not until recently have our activities become a real threat. Pollution, over-fishing, mining, the destruction of the oceans' richest areas, coastal crowding and the altering of the oceans' temperature and chemical composition are leaving a mark that is difficult to erase... >>>
Fishing quotas based on scientific information as opposed to national or individual interests
The European Union's commitment to achieving responsible and sustainable fisheries, as reflected in the New Common Fisheries Policy, must, at long last, provide an impetus to fisheries management... >>>
Deep sea species: The European Union must decide between science and the private interests of the fishing industry
The European Commission proposal with regard to the setting and distribution of quotas for deep-sea marine species (Com (2004) 746) represents a significant step forward in complying with the European Union's commitments and the new Common Fisheries Policy... >>>
A contribution from Oceana to the debate on the application of management measures to mediterranean fisheries
The European Union is deeply immersed in a debate concerning how to achieve sustainable management systems for fishing grounds in this sea... >>>
Contamination by cruise ships
The growing problem caused by this increase in cruise ship traffic all over the world has led to some countries, particularly the most frequently visited ones, to start introducing new regulations to try and curb their impact. However, legislation is sadly lacking when it comes to international waters... >>>
Oceana report distributed in 2004 UNEP workshop on fisheries subsidies and sustainable fisheries management
EU fisheries policy is heading in the right direction. Is subsidy policy on the same track? >>>
Halting IUU fishing: enforcing international fisheries agreements
The most important factor undermining the effectiveness of international cooperation and management of fisheries on straddling and highly migratory stocks and fisheries on the high seas is the prevalence of illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing... >>>
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Transoceanic Expedition 2005
Mediterranean 2006
Mediterranean 2007
