Posted on May, 04 2006

Gothenburg, Sweden – The North Sea, once one of the richest seas in the world, home to giants of the ocean such as bluefin tuna and whales, has become a place of desolation and destruction says WWF.

As environment and transportation ministers from eight North Sea countries and the EU Environment Commissioner meet to discuss the environmental impact of shipping and fisheries, WWF is calling for an improvement to the health of the North Sea.

“The North Sea is in urgent need of intensive care, unable to produce natural goods and services for society,” says Stephan Lutter, Director of WWF’s North-East Atlantic Marine Ecoregion Programme.

“Ministers must combat serious impacts from shipping and fishing to give the North Sea a real chance of recovery.”

The North Sea cod stock, for example, is on the verge of collapse, no longer able to reproduce and recover to a viable level. The International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES) has recommended zero catch of North Sea cod to the European Commission, but the council has ignored the advice and continued adopting allowable catches and quotas.

Unregulated by-catch is also one of the most serious problems in North Sea fisheries, in addition to overfishing of commercial stocks. In certain North Sea fisheries, such as for sole and plaice, up to 80 per cent of the catch are discarded, including juvenile fish and invertebrate animals.

Commitments made in previous North Sea ministerial meetings to improve fisheries and shipping management, as well as pollution, have been deeply flawed and poorly implemented. Agreements have not been ratified.

North Sea Ministerial agreements have so far been followed up internally or at the level of the relevant Regional Seas Convention (OSPAR). The emphasis and responsibility might shift towards the proposed EU Marine Strategy in the future. However, the proposed EU Directive is unlikely to encompass, at regional level and in legally-binding format, the objectives and targets adopted by North Sea Conferences.

"Both shipping and fisheries pose the most serious of threats to the North Sea and both remain problematic despite years of regulation and various initiatives within the North Sea process and elsewhere," said Lutter.

"The role and weight of marine environment protection and conservation within future policy is unclear."

For further information:
Marie von Zeipel, Press Officer
WWF Sweden
Tel: +46 70 629 10 77

Stephan Lutter, Director
WWF North-East Atlantic Programme
Tel: +49 162 2914425