Brussels, 20th December 2011. A new brochure produced by Seas At Risk and other european ENGOs gives an up-to-date overview of what is happening at the UN and EU level on air pollution from ships and provides recommendations on how to cut emissions quickly and significantly.
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Durban, 10th December 2011. Last week’s COP17 conference on climate change ended with a deal made in extra time that promisingly prolongs the fate of the Kyto Protocol but does nothing to ensure the deep, immediate cuts in GHG emissions that are needed to protect our oceans now.
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Brussels, 13 December 2011. In advance of the Fisheries Council meeting this week at which fishing limits for 2012 will be set, Seas At Risk is calling on EU Fisheries Ministers to follow the best available scientific advice and set limits that enable the EU to achieve its target of rebuilding fish stocks to sustainable levels by 2015.
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Luxembourg, 12th December 2011. Today the European Court of Auditors has released a report which severely condemns the way in which EU fisheries subsidies aimed at reducing fleet overcapacity have been used so far. The Court has found that billions of Euros of public expenditure have done little to align fleet capacity with available fishing opportunities.
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Paris, 1st November, 2011. Four UN agencies concerned with the protection of the marine environment have outlined their joint proposals to improve the management of coastal areas and oceans with the goal of achieving deliverable actions at next year’s Rio +20 conference.
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Amsterdam, 9th December 2011. SAR member the North Sea Foundation has called for action on underwater noise – A growing problem that in some instances can threaten the very survival of marine life due to biological sounds needed for communication and orientation being drowned out.
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Just under ten years ago, North Sea Ministers acknowledged that a new approach would be needed to minimise the impact of commercial shipping on the environment. The ‘Clean Ship Concept’ was born and whilst the idea has gained momentum amongst global policy makers and shipping companies alike, the maritime sector still has much to do in order to realise its green potential.
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London, 8th December, 2011. SAR member organization the Marine Conservation Society has shown up the UK Government after the Minister for Environment announced a delay to the designation of Marine Conservation Zones around the English coast; a scenario which will mean the failure of the UK to meet an international commitment on Marine Protected Areas by 2012.
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Brussels, 2nd December 2011. The European Commission has presented its proposal for a new subsidies framework for the fisheries and maritime sectors. While the proposal contains significant improvements in relation to the current Fisheries Fund, some measures will continue to pump taxpayers’ money into fleets operating at overcapacity.
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Brussels, 1st November 2011. Almost 20 years since the first “Earth Summit” was held in Rio de Janeiro, preparations are now well underway for the 2012 anniversary conference. With UNEP identifying “global ocean collapse” as a key emerging issue for the event, Rio+20 must deliver to save the seas.
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Berlin, 3rd November 2011. SAR member organisation BUND has set out a list of demands for the outcome of the Rio+20 conference next year, calling for a commitment to sustainability that goes beyond greening the economy. The group also picks up on marine concerns, highlighting sustainable fisheries, MPAs and marine litter.
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Online, 6th December 2011. It is estimated by scientists that around 250 billion pieces of plastic are swimming in the Mediterranean Sea. With this in mind, it’s good to know there are solutions at our disposal and on Seas At Risk’s educational website Learn2sea.org we’ve uploaded some excellent new materials for teachers, children, adults, industry and NGOs to discover more!
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Brussels, 21st November 2011. The Shark Alliance has welcomed the long-awaited proposal from the European Commission for closing the loopholes in the EU’s ban on shark finning, the wasteful practice of slicing off a shark’s fins and discarding the body at sea.
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Berlin, 24th October, 2011. Speaking in Berlin on the marine environment and next year’s Rio +20 conference, German Chancellor Angela Merkel compared the current economic troubles to the crisis being faced by the world’s oceans. At the same conference, the Seas At Risk Executive Director called for German leadership.
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Brussels, 27th October 2011. Although including a positive call for an extension to the European Liability Directive, the European Commission’s Proposal for action on offshore oil drilling does not go far enough to protect the marine environment and properly safeguard against a Deep Water Horizon-style disaster in European waters.
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Brussels, 10th October 2011. The European Parliament’s Fisheries Committee has provisionally agreed on a schedule for the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy which will most likely prolong the process well into 2013 - The reform was initially intended to finish by the end of 2012.
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Brussels, 29th September 2011. The European Commission has decided to proceed with a second infringement procedure against Italy for illegal fishing with driftnets.
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Brussels, 6th October 2011. A transatlantic coalition of environmental groups applauded today’s European Court of Justice’s Advocate General’s preliminary opinion, which supports Europe’s right to tackle GHG emissions from airlines. The coalition said the preliminary opinion was very encouraging.
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Brussels, 27th September 2011. SAR and FISH have called on EU member states to support the Commission’s Proposal on Baltic Fishing opportunities for 2012; which is in line with both scientific advice and international and EU commitments to sustainable management of fisheries resources.
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Brussels, 5th October. Slow steaming as a tool to reduce green house gases and other air emissions from the shipping sector was given the green light by industry and environmental groups at a seminar hosted by SAR and T&E this week.
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Utrecht, 5th October 2011. With a bar of soap and some water, keeping our skin clean used to be so simple. Now, some care products include small plastic grains and these ‘scrubbers’ are ending up in the marine environment through discharged sewage water. SAR member organisation SDN is calling for action and an end to this worrying source of marine plastic pollution.
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Brussels, 16th September 2011. In response to the European Commission’s consultation on Port Reception Facilities, SAR has called for a list of regulatory improvements in order to better protect against oily waste discharges and the build of marine litter from ship waste dumping.
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Brussels, 22nd November 2011. In the context of the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) SAR is hosting a lunch time event at the European Parliament. Join us to hear the views of Commissioner Maria Damanaki, Members of the European Parliament and other key stakeholders on how Low Impact Fisheries can be promoted through the reform of the CFP.
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Brussels, 1st September 2011. Nine environmental organizations across Europe have written an appeal to the European Commissioner for Energy, urging that offshore oil drilling regulations are strengthened as part of a Commission proposal that is expected shortly.
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Dublin, 21st September 2011. Scientists have discovered another unlikely source of microplastics that are plaguing our beaches and seas: Putting clothes made out of synthetic fabrics through the washing machine!
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Stockholm, 25th August 2011. Seas At Risk member organisation the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SSNC) has launched a campaign to inform consumers about the negative effects of giant prawn farming on the environment.
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Brussels, 14th July 2011. The European Commission has launched a long awaited public consultation on port reception facilities, an important step as part of the review of Directive 2000/59 which has the potential to significantly prevent ship waste dumping.
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Ross-on-Wye, 29th July 2011. Seas At Risk member, the Marine Conservation Society, is urging coastal lovers to join forces for this year’s September beach clean, as results from last Autumn's clean up shows litter levels are still rising on UK beaches.
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Washington D.C., 18th August 2011. In what is the second outrageous conviction for ship waste dumping this year, a little known Liberian company has been charged $700,000 for dumping oily waste; highlighting the shocking measures some operators take to avoid delivering waste to port facilities.
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Sandhamn, 10th August 2011. Seas At Risk member, the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SSNC), has set sail for the month of August to publicize the stress being put on the fragile Baltic Sea.
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Brussels, 9th August 2011. In response to the European Commission’s consultation on reducing the use of plastic bags, Seas At Risk has put full support behind the call for a Europe wide ban on disposable bags and measures to encourage the uptake of sustainably sourced long life alternatives.
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Brussels, 28th June 2011. At the June Fisheries Council meeting, EU Fisheries Ministers outrageously backed out of their international commitment to end overfishing by 2015 and chose to oppose the Commission’s proposals that would result in more sustainable fisheries.
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Oxford, 20th June 2011. An international panel of marine experts has warned that the world’s oceans are at a high risk of entering a phase of extinction of marine species unprecedented in human history.
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Brussels, 27th June 2011. In an open letter sent ahead of the June EU Fisheries Council meeting, Seas At Risk and the Fisheries Secretariat have called on Ministers to support an array of urgently needed measures to protect fish stocks when they discuss the Commission’s proposal for setting fishing limits for 2012.
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Brussels, 25th May 2011. The European Commission has launched a consultation on catch quotas for 2012, asking for the first time for opinions of all stakeholders including the general public.
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Brussels, 24th May 2011. The umbrella group ‘NGO Shipbreaking Platform’ is calling on Bangladesh to refuse entry and dismantling of the Probo Koala ship – the vessel that became infamous in the case of 528 tonnes of toxic waste being dumped in the Ivory Coast in 2006.
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New York, 3rd June 2011. A United Nations (UN) meeting on oceans biodiversity has heard how poorly high seas fishing nations have performed in implementing their commitments to ground breaking resolutions adopted in 2006 and 2009, designed to protect biodiversity in the deep sea.
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The World's oceans, 8th June 2011. This year’s theme focuses on “Youth: the Next Wave for Change”. In light of this, Seas At Risk are challenging all comers of all ages to discover the world's oceans online and learn a new language too.
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Brussels, 18th May 2011. The European Commission has launched a public consultation on plastic carrier bags and in particular is assessing the effectiveness of a ban or levy to discourage and reduce their use.
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4th - 12th June. Due to continued overfishing, some fish stocks are now at perilously low levels, but it was not always like this: Fish Week 2011 looks to explore how the marine environment used to be healthier, how overfishing has changed this and how the EU’s CFP reform is an opportunity to go Back to the Future.
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Brussels, 24th May 2011. Presenting her own report on illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing at the European Parliament, MEP Isabella Lövin has called for the European Commission to strengthen its battle against IUU fishing.
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Brussels, 3rd May 2011. The European Commission has published a new Biodiversity Strategy, aimed at achieving the headline target of halting the loss of biodiversity and the degradation of ecosystem services in the EU by 2020, and restoring them in so far as feasible, while stepping up the EU contribution to averting global biodiversity loss.
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Gdánsk, 20th May 2011. The European Maritime Day is being celebrated with a conference titled “Putting People First”. Around 1000 participants have gathered in the Polish coastal city to discuss the challenges currently facing maritime sectors in Europe.
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Brussels, 5th May 2011. Reports of EU plans to pay fishers to catch plastic, rather than fish, is a double edged sword: cleaning up marine litter is desperately needed but paying fishers to collect plastic in a manner that keeps afloat a largely unsustainable industry is tantamount to an environmentally damaging subsidy.
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Las Palmas, 20th April 2011. A 500 tonne cargo of suspected illegally caught fish worth millions of Euros has been seized by Spanish authorities, adding to a 600 tonne catch already being investigated in the port.
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Brussels, 29th April 2011. Several Members of the European Parliament are rallying for support to double the allowance of national aid for fishermen to €60,000 per enterprise - Seas At Risk and other environmental organisations strongly oppose such an increase.
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Brussels, 13th April 2011. The European Commission has put forward a proposal for the review of the Energy Tax Directive which maintains an environmentally harmful exemption on tax for fuel used by the fishing and shipping sectors.
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Brussels, 16th March – 11th May 2011. The European Commission has launched an online consultation on offshore oil and gas platforms as part of its current deliberations over new EU standards to safeguard against a major oil spill in EU waters.
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Brussels, March 29th 2011. The long awaited European Commission White Paper on Transport has called for at least a 40% reduction in carbon emissions by 2050 and for improved sharing of information amongst Member States on ship-source waste.
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Brussels, 4th April 2011. Commissioner Damanaki has announced that the long awaited Commission proposal for a reformed Common Fisheries Policy will be ready on the 13th of July. Parliament and Council will then decide on the contents through the ordinary legislative procedure.
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Brussels, 2nd March 2011. At a meeting of Fisheries Ministers and Members of the European Parliament, Ministers from Denmark, France, Germany and the UK all gave their support to Commissioner Maria Damanaki’s call for a ban on discards.
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Biarritz, 28th March 2011. 40,000 people, 35 countries and over 950 clean-up operations across the globe has signalled to policy makers that marine litter must be taken seriously and acted on accordingly through appropriate legislation.
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Oslo, 5th April 2011. A U.N. backed study has concluded that fertilizing the oceans to boost the growth of tiny plants that would absorb green house gases is unlikely to work as a way to slow climate change.
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Brussels, 24th March 2011. With multiple sectors utilizing the marine and coastal environment, the competition for space has never been stronger. In response to this, the Commission has launched a public consultation that seeks to explore options for EU action in coastal management and maritime planning.
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London, 4th April 2011. The International Maritime Organisation failed to reach agreement on global action to address GHGs from international shipping at a meeting in London last week. Environmental groups have repeated calls for EU action in the absence of progress on global measures.
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Online, 31st March 2011. Understanding marine litter and how waste enters our oceans is crucial in order to better realise the sorts of solutions that can tackle the problem – new materials uploaded to learn2sea.org provide a great opportunity to find out more.
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Barcelona, 10th March 2011. OSPAR countries have chosen to ignore damning reports concerning offshore oil drilling, opting against immediate action. Instead, they have decided to hope for the best by choosing to continue drilling in extreme conditions whilst no substantial safeguards have been put in place since the Gulf oil spill.
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Pasadena, California 9 March 2011. A study by American space agency NASA has concluded that polar ice sheets are losing mass at an accelerated rate and much faster than previously predicted, further highlighting the need for immediate measures to mitigate the effects of global warming.
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Brussels, 1st March 2011. Commissioner Damanaki is meeting Fisheries Ministers and Members of the European Parliament for a discussion on discarding, the current wasteful practice of throwing unwanted or over-quota caught fish back into the sea.
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Biarrtiz, 25th February 2011. In its sixteenth year running, Surfrider’s Ocean Initiatives - an annual cross European beach clean-up event - will take place this March, with the goal of trumping the 40,000 European citizens who attended the event last year.
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Brussels, 17th February 2011. The Clean Shipping Coalition (CSC) is calling on six European countries to ratify a crucial piece of marine environmental legislation, in order to enable their participation at a crucial vote on energy efficiency standards for ships at a meeting of the IMO this summer.
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Brussels, 28th January. Representing the interests of plastics manufacturers, the lobby group Plastics Europe has complained to the European Commission and is trying to overturn an Italian government initiative that would reduce the amount of plastic bags entering the marine environment.
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Brussels, 4th January 2011. After years of threatening regional EU action if the IMO didn’t tackle GHG emissions from ships, the European Commission has started 2011 by announcing a consultation on options for an EU measure.
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Miami, 31st January 2011. The expansion of what are commonly known as ‘dead zones’ in the world's oceans are growing in size and consequentially further exposing certain fish stocks to higher levels of overfishing, a new study has found.
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Amsterdam, 31st January 2011. Seas At Risk member the North Sea Foundation has celebrated its 30th birthday with a symposium and auction that helped raise €2000 for the organization.
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Brussels, 25th January 2011. In a meeting organised by MEPs Chris Davies and Carl Haglund, Members of the European Parliament were urged to jointly engage in the process of reforming the Common Fisheries Policy after they were reminded that fisheries are a societal issue, affecting a wide variety of stakeholders and interests.
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Lisbon, 26th January, 2011. Mediterranean countries and the EU are being petitioned to proceed with a moratorium on new offshore drilling operations and to put in place plans to decommission existing platforms.
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Brussels, 23rd January 2011. In a letter supported by Seas At Risk, the NGO Platform on Shipbreaking has called on the Bangladeshi Prime Minister, to stop the dumping and breaking of ships on the beaches of Bangladesh.
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Brussels, 21st January 2011. The European Parliament has adopted a resolution calling for strict EU rules to protect the Arctic, including from ship-source black carbon emissions, heavy fuel oil used in ships, and oil drilling.
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The Hague, January 24th 2011. An investigation by the Paris Memoradum (MoU) of Understanding on Port State Control has concluded that a significant number of tankers could pose a risk to the environment.
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Shetland Islands, 20th January 2011. A new report on marine litter has highlighted a problem that not only ruins beaches and maims unsuspecting wildlife but costs governments and industry millions of Euros each year.
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Online, 20th January 2011. As part of a project evaluation, FISH and Seas At Risk have produced a short survey regarding the briefings they provide before all EU Fisheries Council meetings: Continue reading to give your feedback.
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Cancun, 6th December 2010. Designed to help the shipping sector reduce its carbon footprint, a free online database detailing the energy efficiency of ocean going ships has been set-up.
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Washington DC, 6th January 2011. In a new report that highlights failures concerning the Gulf oil spill, EU legislators have been given further reason to administer precaution and put in place an oil drilling moratorium in European waters.
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Brussels, 30th of November 2010. The European Environmental Agency (EEA) presented its fourth European environment-state and outlook 2010 report (SOER 2010) in the European Parliament today, pointing out a number of serious marine environmental concerns and highlighting the need for a significant reform of the CFP.
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Luxembourg, 20th October 2010. In an open letter sent to Ministers ahead of the EU Fisheries Council meeting next week, Seas At Risk and the Fisheries Secretariat have set out a list of recommendations for the Council’s decisions on fishing limits in the Baltic and the EU negotiating mandate on the management of bluefin tuna by the ICCAT.
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Nagoya, Japan, 19th October 2010. Countries meeting at the tenth conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) are presented with a golden opportunity to give biodiversity a life-line and prevent further critical losses across the world.
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Hong Kong, 18th October 2010. In a landmark ruling made last week, the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Government has announced that a ban on trawling will be enforced in Hong Kong waters.
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Brussels, 3rd June, 2010: EU greenhouse gas emissions from the shipping sector for 2008 fell for the first time in almost twenty years, a report by the European Environment Agengy (EEA) has found.
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Brussels, 19th April 2010: In response to a formal written question put forward by Caroline Lucas MEP, the European Commission has acknowledged the problem of waste at sea but has given little hope for immediate action to prevent this spiralling problem.
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Copenhagen, 31st March 2010: The European Environment Agency (EEA) has highlighted in its March report the need for drastic action to protect and restore the rich biodiversity of European waters.
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Brussels, 12th March 2010, The formal adoption by the Council of the European Union to support a trade ban on bluefin tuna was a positive move, but severly weakened by the conditions that came with it. The EU position is an important factor in negotiations next week on a global ban on the trade of this heavily endangered species.
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Brussels, 9th March 2010: A report published by the coalition group OCEAN2012 - of whom Seas At Risk are a founding member – has documented an array of case studies illustrating how Europe’s fisheries might be managed to become more environmentally and socially sustainable.
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Brussels, 22nd of February 2010. The European Commission has followed the European Parliament by agreeing to support the listing of bluefin tuna under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), but on several conditions.
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Brussels, 12th February, 2010. Seas At Risk has called on the European Commission to show more ambition in regards to the ongoing implementation of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD).
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Strasbourg, 10th of February, 2010. The European Parliament has declared its official support for a listing of bluefin tuna under Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), it was announced today.
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Berlin, 10th February, 2010. A leaked report by the German government has heavily criticised both the United Nations and the European Union’s efforts to prevent the continuing build up of marine waste at sea, the German magazine Spiegel Online has reported.
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Birmingham Alabama, 5th February 2010. The threat to fisheries due to the adverse effect of ocean acidification has been put high on the agenda by leading marine biologist Jim McClintock.
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Brussels, 2nd February, 2010. “Market failures” have been blamed for putting off a more carbon efficient shipping sector as experts suggest an emissions trading scheme is ripe for shipping, a European Commission funded report has said.
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Kiel, 5th February, 2010. A ban on fishing in certain European waters in order to replenish stocks has been called for by two leading fisheries scientists in a study published last month.
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Aberdeen, 27th January 2010. Scotland’s Aberdeen University has opened a new £4.4 million (€5.05 million) research lab dedicated to understanding the marine environment, the Scottish government announced yesterday.
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Berlin, 11th January 2010. 2010 has been appointed by the UN as the Year of Biodiversity – what will the European Commission and other institutions be doing to mark this?
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Biarritz, 25th January, 2010. Surfrider Foundation Europe (SFE) has launched its annual Ocean Initiatives campaign and beach clean up event to raise awareness on marine waste.
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Brussels, 15th January 2010. Connie Hedegaard, the proposed EU Climate Commissioner, has made it clear that if the IMO doesn’t act fast on cutting ship GHG emissions then the EU will initiate measures.
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U.S. Virgin Islands, 8th January 2010. A group of scientists has set sail to study the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
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Brussels, 31st December 2009. The call for responses on the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy closed on 31st December 2009 and SAR contributed several submissions.
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Copenhagen, 19th December 2009. The failure of COP15 to progress the issue of GHG emissions from shipping should be seen as a green light for the EU to push ahead with an emissions trading scheme for ships visiting EU ports.
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Brussels, 16th December 2009. After lengthy and difficult discussions, the Council reached agreement on fishing opportunities for 2010 on 15 December.
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Brussels, 16th December 2009. The conclusions from Seas At Risk’s conference on capacity reduction and fleet restructuring can be downloaded from a link to this article in the form of a report.
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Copenhagen, 10th December 2009. Delegates at the UN Climate Summit were today shown that the world’s oceans are becoming acidic at a faster rate than at any time in the last 55 million years, threatening disaster for marine life.
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Brussels, 1st December 2009. With the coming into force of the Lisbon Treaty today, the decision-making procedure under the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) has changed significantly.
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New York, 4th December 2009. The UN General Assembly calls upon all high seas fishing nations to intensify their efforts to protect vulnerable deep-sea life in the international waters of the world’s oceans.
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Brussels, 24th November 2009. The forthcoming climate negotiations in Copenhagen provides the world's leaders with the opportunity to reach an agreement that is truly a show of leadership.
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Brussels, 27th November 2009. Environmental NGOs working on GHG emissions from marine and aviation bunkers have published a joint position ahead of the Copenhagen climate change summit.
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Brussels, 25th November 2009. A European Parliament resolution on the EU strategy for the Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change has upped the stakes on targets for marine bunker emissions.
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Brussels, 20th November 2009. The EU Fisheries Ministers failed to reach any agreement on a new technical measures regulation at their November meeting.
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Recife, 15th November 2009. ICCAT slashes blue fin tuna quotas by a third, thereby rejecting a complete ban.
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London, 9th November 2009. Seas At Risk is currently participating in the North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC) Annual Meeting. Opening statement from SAR,WWF and DSCC can be found at the bottom of this article.
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Luxembourg, 28th October 2009. Twelve years after Kyoto EU states have agreed a 2020 target for GHG emissions from shipping that allows a substantial increase in emissions over 1990 levels.
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Luxembourg, 21st October 2009. The Dutch government has urged action on marine plastic debris.
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Luxembourg, 20th October 2009. Conclusions of the Fisheries Council meeting in Luxembourg on 19 and 20 October.
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Brussels, 15th October 2009. Seas At Risk held its annual conference on 21st October on the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy.
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Brussels, 15th October 2009. The European Commission has published a progress report on the EU’s Integrated Maritime Policy (IMP). The report evaluates actions undertaken since 2007 to date, and outlines strategic policy orientations of the future of the IMP.
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Brussels, 12th October 2009. SAR has teamed up with the Fish Secretariat to prepare monthly briefings ahead of each Agriculture and Fisheries Council for Fisheries ministers across Europe.
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Bangkok, 9th October 2009. The text to emerge from the most recent round of UNFCCC negotiations suggests campaigners face an up hill battle to get a progressive agreement on bunkers in Copenhagen in December.
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Bangkok, 6th October 2009. After an earlier call by the EU for Copenhagen to set bunker targets EU states have failed to produce a detailed proposal on figures in Bangkok.
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Brussels, 29th September 2009. 150 participants attended the joint OCEAN2012/WWF conference “Regional Fisheries Management: How to make it work for fisheries and the environment”.
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Brussels, 28th September 2009. President Barroso says that the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy is an opportunity for "root and branch reform" during the Spring Alliance conference.
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Brussels, 22nd September 2009. Six countries in the Mediterranean region have stood in the way of co-sponsoring a proposal on a ban on trading blue fin tuna.
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New York, 21 August 2009. The UN Secretary General Review of UN resolution 61/105 was published today.
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Baiona, 16th September 2009. Environmental organisations present at the Ministerial gathering of 47 countries from five continents emphasize the fisheries ministers’ recognition that “a new scenario for the seas and the oceans” is urgently needed.
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Baiona, 11th September 2009. The 5th World Conference of Fisheries Ministers will take place in Bayona, Spain on Tuesday 16th September. More than 60 Fisheries Ministers from five continents will meet to adopt a ministerial declaration bound to guide the future policy of sustainable fishing worldwide.
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Brussels, 8th September 09. Commissioners Joe Borg and Stavros Dimas have backed a proposal to suspend international trade of Atlantic and Mediterranean bluefin tuna to protect ailing stocks from overfishing.
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Sweden, 19th August 2009. Many Swedish fishermen have applied for subsidies to scrap their boats. In the UK it is estimated that 20% of west coast fishermen would welcome a similar scheme.
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Washington, August 20th 2009. July was the hottest month for the world's oceans in almost 130 years of record-keeping. The average water temperature worldwide was 17 Celsius, according to the National Climatic Data Center, the branch of the U.S. government that keeps world weather records. June was only slightly cooler, while August could set another record, scientists say. The previous record was set in July 1998 during a powerful El Nino in the Pacific.
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Los Angeles, 5th August 2009. Marine scientists from California are venturing out into the Pacific to find out more about the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch".
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Paris, Tuesday 4th August 2009. According to SeafoodSource.com, the French government will invest more than EUR 7 million in a range of projects aimed at reducing the fishing fleet’s fuel consumption.
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Copenhangen, 4th August 2009. Svend Auken, Danish environmental minister from 1993-2001 and long-time MP for the Social Democrats died in the early hours of Tuesday 4th August 2009.
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Marine pest species costing billions in damage to fisheries, coastal communities and infrastructure are spreading as the world’s shipping nations continue to largely neglect bringing into effect an international treaty setting out requirements for consistent handling and treatment of ships’ ballast water.
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Scotland, 29 July 2009. A new scientific discussion paper released yesterday outlines mounting evidence that human activity is changing the world’s oceans in profound and damaging ways.
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Germany is the latest country to support Monaco's call to list Atlantic bluefin tune on Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES.
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Brussels, 17th July 2009. President Sarkozy has announced France's support for a ban on international trade of bluefin tuna. Monaco and the UK have supported France's position.
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Brussels, 25th June 2009. The Pew Environment Group and EU Transparency launched www.fishsubsidy.org, a new website dedicated to presenting data on fishing subsidies between 1994 and 2006.
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Brussels, 25th June 2009. The OSPAR Commission’s annual meeting in Brussels on 22-25 June did not adopt the Charlie Gibbs Marine Protected Area, despite an earlier agreement by all Contracting Parties to do so.
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The world’s seas are gradually filling with an increasing volume of waste, with plastic making up the single largest part of pollution in the marine environment.
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One of the priorities for the Swedish Presidency of the EU, which takes over the presidency in 1 July, is environmental degradation in and around the Baltic Sea.
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France, 30 June 2009. Surfrider is currently working on a study to evaluate the impact of the new European directive (2006/7/CE) on the classification of European beaches.
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Brussels, 17th June 2009. The Spring Alliance is a movement created by three civil society organisations, the European Environmental Bureau, the European Trade Union Confederation and Social Platform, later also joined by Concord. Although formed and steered by these four organisations, the alliance is supported by a large network of organisations.
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Overfishing and other human activities are encouraging giant jellyfish to prosper and take over parts of the sea. Jellyfish are normally kept in check by fish, which eat small jellyfish and compete for jellyfish food such as zooplankton, researchers said. But, with overfishing, jellyfish numbers are increasing.
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London 24 June 2009. The Marine Conservation Society, a SAR member is working to prevent scallop dredging damaging current European Marine Sites.
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According to a new investigation of the greenhouse gas’s role in ice ages over the millennia, Carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere has risen to its highest level in at least 2.1 million years. Researchers including Columbia University’s Baerbel Hoenisch drilled into the ocean floor off the coast of Africa to remove shells of ancient marine animals called foraminifera that contain climate records, according to the study published today on Science’s Web site. Previous evidence of CO2 concentrations found in columns of Arctic ice go back just 800,000 years.
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The famous oceanographer Sylvia Earle has won the 2009 TED prize for her inspirational work at the frontier of deep ocean exploration for four decades.
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Brussels, 8th June 2009. Today sees the launch of OCEAN2012, a new coalition of NGOs dedicated to transforming European fisheries policy. Its mission is to prevent over-fishing and enhance human well-being, and Seas At Risk is one of its founding members.
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London, 1st June 2009. The world's scientific academies have issued a warning that ocean acidification must be on the agenda when countries attempt to forge a new global deal on cutting emissions in Copenhagen in December.
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London, 1st June 2009. A UK Parliamentary Committee has branded the IMO "not fit for purpose" and the shipping industry as "irresponsible" for not doing more to tackle GHG emissions from ships.
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Bonn, 19th May 2009. The latest negotiating text for the UNFCCC climate change negotiations has been published and includes draft content on marine bunkers.
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London, 22nd May 2009. A coalition of NGOs from around the world are calling on the International Maritime Organisation to agree binding GHG emission reduction targets and measures for shipping ahead of December's UNFCCC climate meeting in Copenhagen.
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London, 20th May 2009. A newly published International Maritime Organisation study shows that technical and operational measures could reduce CO2 emissions from shipping by up to 75%, with a cut of around 20% possible without additional costs.
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London, 17th May 2009. A new direct action group - Ship of Fuels - has been created to raise the profile of shipping's contribution to climate change and to urge governments to include shipping in the global climate deal to be reached in Copenhagen in December.
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Brussels, 19th May 2009. As part of its work to include transport bunker fuels in the December 2009 Copenhagen climate change agreement, Seas At Risk has signed up to a joint-NGO submission to the International Civil Aviation Authority (ICAA).
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Brussels, June 2008. European NGOs Seas At Risk, BirdLife, Greenpeace, IFAW, Oceana and WWF have issued a common statement on the new European Maritime Policy, advocating that environmental legislation, namely the Marine Strategy Framework Directive, should be at the heart of all maritime initiatives.
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Brussels, 16th July 2008. The EU’s Council of Fisheries Ministers yesterday agreed an emergency response to the fuel price “crisis” that has the right aims but includes too many potentially counter-productive measures.
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Oslo, 27th June 2008. China, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, and India have continued to obstruct and undermine every substantial proposal for tackling GHG emissions from shipping at an IMO meeting in Oslo his week.
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Brussels, 24th June 2008. Environment groups welcome the Fisheries Council's decision on IUU fisheries, but strongly oppose the proposed measures to tackle rising fuel prices and regret that no precautionary measures to freeze the footprint of deep water fisheries have been adopted.
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London, 7th April 2008. Last week the International Maritime Organisation successfully negotiated an end to the use by ships of polluting residual heavy fuel oil but made little progress on greenhouse gas emissions.
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London, 31st March 2008. The 57th session of the IMO’s Marine Environment Protection Committee starts today in London, and GHG emissions from shipping is a key item on the agenda.
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Brussels, 23rd May 2008. With fishermen in France, Spain and Portugal pressing their governments for state aid to help with rising fuel bills, Seas At Risk is calling on all European governments to refuse to provide such environmentally harmful subsidies.
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Santa Barbara, 14th February 2008. A global map of total human impact on the oceans shows that no area of the ocean is unaffected and over 40% experiences high levels of human influence.
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Brussels, 19th December 2007. Political short-termism triumphed again last night when the Fisheries Council continued its annual tradition of ignoring scientific advice and authorising continued over-fishing.
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Brussels, 11th December 2007. A battle of wills between the Council and the European Parliament ended today with the adoption of a Marine Strategy Directive unfit for the purpose of protecting European Seas and acting as the “environmental pillar” of the EU’s new maritime policy.
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London, 16th November 2007. The annual meeting of the North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission ended today without an agreement to implement the UN General Assembly resolution on bottom fishing.
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Brussels, 27th October 2007. The European Commission proposal for a Regulation to end destructive fishing practices in certain unregulated areas of the high seas and the related Communication are a welcome first step towards the protection of deep sea biodiversity and the strengthening of deep sea fisheries management.
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Brussels, 10th October 2007. Yesterday the European Parliament continued its defence of a strong Marine Strategy Directive; today the Commission published a Communication on an EU maritime policy promoting exactly the kind of maritime industry development the environmental consequences of which the Directive is intended to combat.
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Brussels, 24th July 2007. With today’s adoption of a regulation on “de minimis” (state) aid, the European Commission has opened the door to fuel subsidies in the fisheries sector.
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London, 15th June. An extraordinary meeting of the North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission (London, 13-14/6/07) has failed to act on a series of crucial issues, instead agreeing temporary measures until it meets again in November.
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Rome, 24th May 2007. "Clean Up the Med" is the largest voluntary operation that Legambiente has organised in the Mediterranean since 1995. On May 25th, 26th and 27th over 1,200 coastal localities will be freed from rubbish.
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Washington DC, July 2008. In a new report the World Bank and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation calculate the losses of the world's fishing fleet due to poor management and depleted fish stocks at 50 billion US dollars per year.
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Bremen, 7th May 2007. The conclusions of a stakeholder conference on the EU maritime policy held in Bremen last week appear to have been high-jacked by shipping and port interests.
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Renaca, 4th May 2007. Up to a quarter of the world's high seas are to be protected from bottom trawling, following a landmark agreement by nations fishing in the South Pacific. Similar action is urgently needed in the N.E. Atlantic.
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London, 12th July. Panama today announced that it had completed the process of national ratification of the AFS Convention, ensuring that the Convention will enter into force during 2008.
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Brussels, 23rd April 2007. In a joint letter to European transport ministers, Seas At Risk and WWF are calling on those EU states that have not done so to ratify the AFS Convention and finally bring into force global regulations banning the use of TBT-based antifouling paints.
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Lyme Bay, 23rd January 2007. A storm, a dramatic rescue and now a broken ship beached at a World Heritage Site with its cargo littering the foreshore.
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Brussels, 21st December 2006. EU fisheries ministers today continued their annual Christmas tradition of ignoring scientific advice, authorising continued over-fishing, and condemning fish stocks and fishers to a bleak future.
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Brussels, 18th December 2006. Environment ministers attending today’s EU Environment Council meeting in Brussels have agreed a draft version of the EU’s Marine Strategy Directive that spells tragedy for the marine environment.
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New York, 8th December 2006. The United Nations’ General Assembly (UNGA) concluded its annual debate on oceans and sustainable fisheries today with the formal adoption of two resolutions, one of which includes controversial measures for high-seas bottom trawling.
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New York, 23rd November 2006. Hopes for effective UN action to protect vulnerable high-seas habitats from bottom trawling were destroyed today as a small but influential group of fishing nations led by Iceland blocked a compromise agreement on measures that carried the support of most other fishing nations, of conservationists and of the marine scientific community.
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Brussels, 22nd November 2006. After two days of Fisheries Council negotiations EU ministers have agreed a typical EU fudge and gambled that deep-sea stocks will survive another 4-5 years of over-fishing. Seas At Risk condemns ministers for their lack of political courage, and is shocked at their willingness to gamble with the future of whole ecosystems.
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London, 17th November 2006. After a week of negotiations, the inter-governmental commission responsible for managing deep-water fishing in the North East Atlantic made some progress on improving the protection of deep-water fish and corals, but allowed the tougher decisions to be hijacked by the short-term fisheries interests of isolated Contracting Parties.
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Brussels, 29th January 2007. The Commission today published a highly critical review of deep-water fisheries management, but failed to propose an appropriate regulatory response.
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Strasbourg, 14th November 2006. The European Parliament today called for a determined Europe-wide effort to combat marine pollution and the impact of destructive and unsustainable fishing, shipping, offshore oil & gas, and coastal and offshore construction activities, all of which present an escalating threat to Europe’s seas.
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London, 3rd November 2006. A study in the November 3rd edition of Science (Worm et al, 2006) has drawn a clear link between declining biodiversity and the provision of ecosystem services, concluding that “marine biodiversity loss is increasingly impairing the ocean’s ability to provide food, maintain water quality, and recover from perturbations.”
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London, 13th November 2006. The North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC) will hold its 2006 Annual Meeting from the 13-17th November. On the agenda is a prohibition for orange roughy fisheries (pictured) and a freeze on the expansion of deep-sea fisheries into new, un-fished areas of the North East Atlantic.
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Brussels, 11th October 2006. The first step in the process of strengthening the European Commission's proposal for a Marine Strategy Directive (MSD) was taken by the Environment Committee of the European Parliament on Tuesday (10th October).
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Lisbon, 31st May 2006. Will the Government of Portugal, one of the European countries that holds the key to resolving the high seas trawling controversy at the United Nations, make a move to secure a strong majority in favour of a high seas bottom trawl moratorium within the European Union? It is too early to say, but there was a ray of hope yesterday in Lisbon at the DSCC Workshop "High Seas Marine Biodiversity: The Bottom Trawling Challenge and the Role of Portugal", attended by eminent representatives of Portugal's academic, policy and NGO community, together with senior government officials.
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Brussels, 10th May 2007. A picture taken from space graphically illustrates the damage that is being caused around the world by trawling, one of the most environmentally damaging and energy intensive of fishing techniques.
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Brussels, 5th December 2006. Despite consistent advice from fisheries scientists over the last 5 years to stop the catching of cod*, the Commission has again proposed that European fisheries ministers agree fishing opportunities for cod, and reduced those opportunities by just 25% compared with 2006.
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Gothenburg, May 5th 2006. Ministers today ensured the sad end to a once proud process of international cooperation to protect the North Sea. Today’s special meeting, the last in a long series of interministerial North Sea Conference events stretching back to 1984, was convened in recognition of the very significant threat still posed to the environment of the North Sea by the shipping and fishing industries.
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Brussels, 29th September 2006. Seas At Risk and the DSCC today accused the European Commission of greenwashing a set of proposals designed to undermine the growing support for a high seas moratorium on bottom trawl fishing.
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Brussels, 19th October 2006. Seas At Risk is reaching the end of a period of review and reorganisation and a number of exciting changes will strengthen the organisation and improve the effectiveness of its future work.
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Gothenburg, 26th June 2008. Twelve of Sweden’s biggest importers and exporters have signed a letter of intent that will lead to the collection of data and use of environmental criteria in their shipping procurement.
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Brussels, 22nd April 2009. The European Commission has published its Green Paper on the Reform of the Common Fisheries Policy. The document contains an analysis of the problems underlying the current policy and provides a basis for discussions on reform.
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London, 11th March 2009. Commercial fishing in the north-east Atlantic could be harming deep-sea fish populations a kilometre below the deepest reach of fishing trawlers, according to a 25-year study undertaken by a consortium of research institutes.
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Brussels, 3rd March 2009. The Council of Ministers has rejected a Commission proposal to count ship emissions towards national totals under a new global climate treaty if the IMO fails to agree reductions.
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London, 10th February 2009. The Marine Conservation Society, Seas At Risk's member in the UK, has joined Google Earth's new Oceans initiative. Their contribution is a featured map layer showing where in the world some of the most sustainably-sourced kinds of fish come from.
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Brussels, 28th January 2009. The European Commission today released its proposals for an EU stance at the forthcoming Copenhagen United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) meeting.
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Brussels, 12th December 2008. Today’s agreement by EU leaders on the most contentious aspects of the EU’s planned response to climate change, known as the climate and energy package, has been condemned as a failure by environment groups who are calling for the Parliament to reject it.
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Brussels, 5th November 2008. A one day Seas At Risk conference on Climate and the Oceans ended today with a clear and urgent signal to the shipping & fishing industries that they must do more to reduce their GHG emissions and help tackle climate change.
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London, 13th October 2008. The Secretary General of the International Maritime Organisation last week described the impacts of climate change as an “Orwellian” prospect, but failed to convince developing nations of the need for IMO action on greenhouse gas emissions from ships.
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