Saving Seafood

Mediterranean diets boost ‘good’ bacteria in the gut: Eating lots of vegetables, fish and olive oil increases levels by nearly 10%, study finds

April 27, 2018 — Eating a Mediterranean diet boosts ‘good’ bacteria in the gut, new research suggests.

Eating lots of vegetables, fish and olive oil improves good bacteria in the stomach by up to seven per cent compared with a western diet, a study found.

Lead author Dr Hariom Yadav, from Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in North Carolina, said: ‘We have about two billion good and bad bacteria living in our gut.

‘If the bacteria are of a certain type and not properly balanced, our health can suffer.

‘Our study showed that the good bacteria, primarily Lactobacillus, most of which are probiotic, were significantly increased in the Mediterranean-diet group.’

Poor gut bacteria has previously been linked to conditions such as depression and pneumonia.

The study, published in the journal Frontiers in Nutrition, used animals to mimic two human diets, as this allowed researchers to carefully monitor and control the nutrients ingested.

Read the full story at the Daily Mail

 

ICCAT decision to raise bluefin quotas draws scrutiny

November 24, 2017 — Conservation groups reacted with outrage after the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) concluded its annual conference, as the member nations decided to increase catch limits on bluefin tuna.

ICCAT’s decision to raise eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean bluefin limits to 36,000 tons by 2020 represents a 50 percent increase from current levels. The move prompted fears the species that was threatened due to years of overfishing may face peril yet again, according to Alessandro Buzzi, a WWF fisheries project manager.

“We have been fighting for the last 10 years to save bluefin tuna, we are so near recovery that it is a scandal to see ICCAT going back to business as usual; this could jeopardize all the progress we’ve made,” Buzzi said.

In a statement, the commission said it was following the advice of its scientific committee to grant the “considerable” increase. The limit will be raised gradually over the next three years, with next year’s limit set at 28,200 tons.

In addition, a tentative agreement on next year’s quota share was reached, with discussions on future years set to take place in March.

“While a larger pie to share should have led to greater possibilities of consensus, the demands by those who already had a quota for a larger slice made negotiations tougher than ever,” the commission said.

Officials with The Pew Charitable Trusts said the decisions made during the conference were among the “poorest” in a long time.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

Nations decide to increase quota for Atlantic Bluefin tuna

November 22, 2017 — MARRAKECH, Morocco — Countries fishing the eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean agreed Tuesday to expand the annual quota for prized bluefin tuna to reflect an improvement in their stocks. Environmentalists insisted the increase was excessive.

The 50-nation International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas agreed to increase the quota from 24,000 tons this year to 28,000 next year, with a further 4,000 tons added in each of the following two years.

The decision means the quota has more than doubled from five years ago, when once depleted stocks of bluefin tuna first started showing the potential of a recovery.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Boston Globe

Squid may become favourite UK meal as seas become warmer

December 13th, 2016 — Squid and fish that thrive in warmer waters, such as sardines and anchovies, are flourishing around the North Sea, according to fisheries data.

Squid are now being caught at 60% of survey stations in the North Sea, compared with 20% in the 1980s.

But the likes of cod are heading north, away from British waters.

Dr John Pinnegar, of the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas), which has been monitoring North Sea fish populations for more than 100 years, said models for 2025 and beyond suggested that seawater temperatures off the UK may continue to rise.

Fishing boats are now catching species that have not been caught in the area before.

Mediterranean alternatives

“Twenty or 30 years ago we hardly saw squid in our surveys,” he told BBC News.

Dr Pinnegar, programme director for marine climate change at Cefas, said summer squid fisheries had expanded around the Moray Firth in north-east Scotland, as part of efforts to reduce over-fishing of more traditional species such as haddock and cod.

“A lot of the things we see increasing in abundance around the UK are marine animals that would probably originally [be] thought of as being Mediterranean or characteristic of the Bay of Biscay, or around Portugal or Spain,” he added.

Read the full story at BBC News 

Catch quota implemented to protect swordfish

November 23, 2016 — A world body of fishing and shipping nations approved a catch quota yesterday to protect the overharvested Mediterranean swordfish, the EU and conservation group Oceana said.

The limit was set at 10,500 tonnes for 2017 at a meeting of the 51-member International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas in Vilamoura, Portugal.

It will be reduced by three per cent per year between 2018 and 2022.

“It’s done. Finally, ICCAT on its 50th anniversary moved a step forward on this too long-neglected stock,” Oceana’s Ilaria Vielmini said in the coastal town where the commission held its annual meeting.

Read the full story from AFP at NT News

European Union agrees on Mediterranean stock recovery strategy

June 9, 2016 — The 40th annual session of the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) drew to a successful close with agreement on a raft of measures aimed at reversing the worrying trend of declining fish stocks in the region.

Decisions taken at the meeting in Malta are in line with the European Commission’s (EC’s) strategy to improve the state of the Mediterranean fish stocks and the economic prospects of the fishing industry.

EU Fisheries Commissioner Karmenu Vella expressed his deep satisfaction with the outcome, which “ushers in a new era of action to help fish stocks recover and fishing communities thrive.”

He said, “This year’s GFCM annual session was a truly historic meeting. After the troubling diagnosis concerning the future of Mediterranean fish stocks and the fishing economy, we now started to take corrective action. I am convinced that the steps agreed will usher in a new era of action that will help fish stocks recover and fishing communities thrive. The progress made at GFCM was a significant boost to the European Commission’s #MedFish4Ever campaign.”

Read the full story at SeafoodSource.com

Israel Expands Palestinian Fishing Zone Off Gaza’s Coast

April 4, 2016 — Israel on Sunday expanded the Palestinian fishing zone off the southern portion of Gaza’s coast to nine nautical miles from six, allowing fishing in areas that had been off limits for a decade.

Palestinian officials welcomed the decision, which they said applied to about 60 percent of Gaza’s Mediterranean coastline.

“I can see hundreds of fishermen and boats — we are excited,” said Zakaria Baker, the Gaza-based head of the fishermen’s committee of the Union of Agricultural Work Committees. He spoke by telephone from the small seaport in Gaza shortly before 3 p.m., when the expansion was scheduled to take effect.

See the full story at The New York Times

Bring on the Drones: Mediterranean Sees Severe Overfishing

February 9th, 2016 — BRUSSELS — Experts say almost all species in the Mediterranean are still overfished despite decades of seeing stocks dwindle — and that is forcing the European Union to consider creative solutions like using drones or space technology to catch fraudulent fishermen.

EU Fisheries chief Karmenu Vella said Tuesday some stocks “are on the verge of depletion. All in all, 93 percent of the fish stocks assessed are overexploited.” On top of that, he said one in two fish caught in the Mediterranean are not even recorded with authorities — raising the specter of even worse depletion.

Read the full story at The New York Times