Today, 80% of the world's fish stocks are fully exploited, over-exploited or depleted.EJF’s Save the Sea campaign is working to end the global environmental, social and economic problems and impacts of illegal pirate fishing and bycatch |
Pirate FishingIllegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing - or ‘Pirate Fishing’ - has become a global phenomenon that now threatens the future of the world’s fisheries. Pirate fishing operations are stealing from our seas and oceans, undermining attempts at sustainable management, causing massive damage to the wider marine ecosystem and the food security and livelihoods of poor coastal communities in developing countries. EJF’s Pirate Fishing Campaign focuses on key issues that if addressed will greatly contribute to eliminating illegal fishing operations, including ending the use of Flags of Convenience for fisheries vessels, closing Ports of Convenience such as Las Palmas, empowering grassroots organisations with video and advocacy training, and securing support for the governments of developing countries, particularly in West Africa, so that they can address pirate fishing in their own waters. |
BycatchEvery year, millions of tons of fish, marine mammals, turtles, birds and other organisms are accidentally caught and discarded as ‘bycatch’. Bycatch not only affects marine ecosystems but also the millions of people who rely on healthy fish stocks for food and employment. While virtually all fisheries result in some bycatch there are those, particularly driftnets and bottom trawling, that result in the highest rates of species mortality and environmental damage. EJF’s Bycatch campaign seeks to address the issue of bycatch in targeted fisheries, including an end to the use of illegal driftnets in the Mediterranean and addressing the enormous impacts of tropical shrimp bottom trawl fisheries. We are also working to ensure that European fishing vessels operating in distant waters of Africa and Asia are required to meet the same bycatch standards as those fishing in Europe, and to develop an International Plan of Action on Bycatch Reduction pressing governments to take immediate action to reduce bycatch in all fisheries. |