The NGO Oceana published, on Friday 9 December, a report giving a worrying assessment of the state of several fish stocks in the Northeast Atlantic.
Oceana urges the EU and the UK to urgently restore these stocks to more sustainable levels, by adopting Total Allowable Catches (TACs) and 2023 quotas that respect the levels recommended by scientists.
The NGO report states that 25 fish stocks (12 species) are depleted in the Northeast Atlantic. The stocks of these fish are so severely reduced that their reproductive capacity is also impaired.
Species such as herring, horse mackerel, Norway lobster and whiting, among others, have at least one stock in this worrying conservation state. The extreme case is cod, which has the highest number of depleted stocks (9) in the entire region.
Oceana makes recommendations to policy makers as the Fisheries Council of the EU meets to set TACs and quotas for 2023 (see other news), such as adopting multiannual management strategies for stock recovery, setting TACs in line with scientific advice, or taking into account the recovery needs of depleted stocks in mixed fisheries.
Link to the Oceana report: https://aeur.eu/f/4m0 (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)