The NGO Oceana called on the EU and the UK on Monday 2 March to commit to retaining sustainable science-based management, high environmental standards and control of fishing activities, in the ongoing negotiations on a future bilateral fisheries agreement.
“It is essential to ensure the environmental sustainability of the agreement”, Oceana said in a press release.
The future agreement will have to cover more than 100 fish stocks whose management will be shared between the EU and the UK. The EU depends on catches in UK waters and the UK needs to export its fishery products to the European market.
The new EU-United Kingdom agreement will, according to Oceana, have to confirm the EU's current commitments to managing stocks according to Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) and to compulsory landing (end of discards).
For Melissa Moore of Oceana, the EU and the UK must work together to “stop overfishing” and meet the MSY. Link to Oceana's recommendations: http://bit.ly/2VEuI6n (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)