July 15th, 2015

Scientists indicate positive trend in European fisheries

14th July in Brussels held a seminar on on ´the State of Fish Stocks´ organised by the European Commission. During this seminar both the scientific community and General Director of DG MARE, Lowri Evans talked about a positive long term trend of increasing fish populations and a reduction of fishing mortality.

During this seminar Eskil Kirkegaard, leading ICES-scientist explained that many stocks have recovered and have delivered stable and sustainable catches, highlighting that long-term management plans and consequent management over the years have been successful. Stocks such as northern hake, cod and plaice in the North Sea and herring and flounder in the Baltic Sea were identified as success stories. In fact, for demersal stocks in the Celtic and West of Scotland, fishing mortality at the lowest levels registered. Across all ecoregions, a decrease in fishing mortality and an increase in stock levels has been observed for demersal, flatfish and pelagic stocks.