Displaying items by tag: fishing

The digitalisation of the fishing industry is moving ahead

This article was featured in Eurofish Magazine 6 2021

Despite many improvements, regional overfishing, bycatches and discards remain unsolved problems for the global fishing industry. Catch quotas, controls at sea and in ports, area closures and fishing bans do help, but are not satisfactory solutions. It would be preferable if unwanted fish did not get caught in fishing gear in the first place. Innovative technologies are giving hope for new solutions.

The Danish Fishermen PO and the Danish Pelagic PO are sponsoring a competition to develop the trawler of the future. The vessel must be powered with a carbon neutral source of energy and should be capable of fishing effectively while conforming to Danish capacity regulations. The design should offer a workable solution for the fishery and provide the basis for a prototype vessel. Participants in the contest must present a design or drawings in one of the following three categories:

• Trawler for the consumer fishery under 24 m
• Trawler for the consumer fishery over 24 m
• Trawler for the industrial fishery

The prize for the winning design is DKK 75,000.

Submissions should be sent to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. on or before 31 December 2021. The winner will be selected by a panel of judges comprising representatives from the ship building industry, research, and fisheries organisations, and will be announced in spring 2022.

Expect more friction before things improve

This article was featured in Eurofish Magazine 5 2021

The departure of the UK from the EU was never going to be easy. The EU is the UK’s main trading partner and disentangling a half-century-old relationship has proved as tricky as foreseen by some. The seafood sector on both sides is struggling to adapt to the new reality.

The transition period from the end of January to the end of December 2020 shielded many seafood tra­ding companies from what was to come because everything continued as before. However, starting from 1 January 2021 British seafood companies trading with the EU started to feel the impact of Brexit as exports to the EU faced several new requirements. Exports the other way had an eas­ier time of it.

As Vice-Minister responsible for fisheries in the Ministry of Agriculture, Mr Dudutis has plenty on his plate. The impact of the pandemic on the sector, the new operational programme for 2021–2027, the ban on cod fishing, and declining quotas for some pelagic species are just a few of the issues he must contend with. If that were not enough, he also needs to persuade the Lithuanian Parliament of the importance of maintaining the small-scale coastal and inland fishing sector, which is under threat from a proposal that could effectively forbid it.

This article was featured in Eurofish Magazine 3 2021.

The Jabuka pit, an area of some 3,000 square km located in the Adriatic between Italian Pescara and Croatian Split, is an important spawning ground for hake and Norway lobster. For years, however, it has been a favoured area for commercial fishers targeting these two species, reports Euronews. Studies conducted under the AdriaMed project showed that the bottom trawls used also caught large numbers of juveniles and undersized hake. Between 2011 and 2014 prohibitions on fishing in the most vulnerable areas were largely ignored. Finally, in 2017 the GFCM adopted an EU proposal to establish a fishing restricted area (FRA) covering at least 2,700 sq. km in the Jabuka Pit, which came into force in 2018. Under the proposal the area is divided into three zones with different degrees of restrictions. The restrictions are enforced by fisheries inspectors who conduct routine checks on trawlers fishing in the small area where they are permitted to operate. Inspections can include measuring random samples from the caught, checking logbooks, and the vessel’s papers. Vessels are also tracked from land using vessel monitoring systems and from the air using drones. The data from all these sources can be combined electronically by a system which will then issue a warning if anything is amiss.

Seafood consumption on the increase

This article was featured in EUROFISH Magazine 1 / 2021.

Ukraine celebrates its 30th anniversary of independence this year. As a young and developing country it is still implementing the reforms designed to build a modern and efficient state. Initial efforts catalysed the signing of the Ukraine–European Union Association Agreement in 2014, which entered into force in 2017 and which, when fully ratified, offers Ukraine duty-free access to the EU market, political and financial support, and access to EU research and other programmes. In return, Ukraine shall continue more firmly on its path of reform particularly in the legislative and judicial area, economic regulation, and finance.

A small sea with big problems

This article was featured in EUROFISH Magazine 1 / 2021.

The fishing industry in the Baltic Sea region has long and rich traditions. As early as the Middle Ages, it was one of the most important economic and social activities, and it experienced an unprecedented boom during Hanseatic times. The fishers of today can only dream of such times. Drastic reductions in catch quotas are endangering the existence of many businesses and their future is at risk. What are the causes behind this fatal development?

New report analyses small-scale fishing in Estonia and suggests ways to rejuvenate it

This article was featured in EUROFISH Magazine 1 / 2021.

The coastal fishery in Estonia is defined by fishing at a depth of up to 20 m. The small-scale fishery is specified as professional fishing on vessels below 12 m and using only passive gears, trawling is forbidden. The two categories overlap—the coastal fishery includes small-scale fishers as does the inland water fishery on Estonia’s largest lakes.

Sustainable fishing and innovation can improve impacts

This article was featured in EUROFISH Magazine 6 / 2020.

The National Agency for Fisheries and Aquaculture, ANPA, is the body responsible for the management of fisheries and aquaculture in Romania. It develops a national strategy for the sector and the regulations to implement it. The Agency is also responsible for defining and implementing a policy on the conservation of living aquatic resources and for the organisation of the market for wild-caught and farmed products. Mr Marian Lixandru, President of ANPA, discusses here Romania’s plans for the sector regarding climate change, the pandemic, and marine aquaculture.

The latest Annual Economic Report on the EU Fishing Fleet has been released showing a profitable fishing fleet in 2020, despite the effects of COVID-19. In 2008, the EU fishing fleet was barely breaking even and ten years later it registered a net profit of EUR 800 million. This significant progress was the result of higher average fish prices, lower fuel costs, and improved stocks of important species. This trend continued into 2019. The COVID-19 outbreak in 2020 interrupted the trend with estimates suggesting that the economic performance of the EU fleets decreased by 17% in landed value, 19% in employment and 29% in net profits compared to 2019.

Despite the impact of COVID-19, projections indicate that the EU fleet is resilient and would end 2020 with a reasonable level of profitability as a result of the efforts made by the sector in the previous years. This includes fishing to the maximum sustainability yield combined with low fuel prices.