The North Atlantic Pelagic Advocacy Group is urging coastal states to take action to end overfishing in the northeast Atlantic.
Despite a pledge by the EU and others to work to the UN’s sustainable development goals, NAPA says that poor governance and inadequate management of fisheries has led to the decline of prized pelagic stocks.
“Fisheries around the world are under pressure and we should be able to look to the coastal states for leadership on responsible management and shared fisheries resources,” said Dr Dave Robb, sustainability program lead at NAPA partner, Cargill.
Commitments to regulate harvesting, end overfishing and illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, replace destructive fishing practices and implement science-based management plans by 2020 have been made by all seven coastal states.
The EU noted recently that ‘progress is being made towards sustainable fishing in the northeast Atlantic ocean’ but NAPA maintains that management is so poor that northeast Atlantic mackerel, Atlanto-Scandian herring and blue whiting have all been overfished for more than a decade leading to the loss of their Marine Stewardship Council certification.
“Loss of certification is impacting on progress against the SDGs as well as casting doubts as to how we can source sustainably from European fisheries,” continued Dr Robb.
“These politicians need to put their words into action or their commitments to ocean stewardship and the broader SDGs are hollow,” he concluded.
