Cover letter to EU Commissioner and UK Secretary of State regarding the joint NGO recommendations to the EU and the UK on fishing opportunities for 2024

This cover letter was sent to the EU Commissioner and the new UK Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, accompanying our joint NGO recommendations to the EU and the UK on fishing opportunities for 2024. In this letter, we urge both the EU and the UK to end overfishing of shared stocks and invest in stock and ecosystem resilience in the face of climate change and other mounting pressures by fishing in line with, and preferably below, the best available scientific advice.

The letter emphasises some of the key points discussed in more detail in the joint NGO TAC (Total Allowable Catch) recommendations documents for the EU and the UK, respectively, namely the following:

• Set catch limits not exceeding, and preferably well below, the best available scientific advice for maximum catches
• Apply a precautionary and ecosystem-based approach when setting catch limits, with special attention to mixed fisheries and interspecies dynamics
• Eliminate bycatch and discards, increasing selectivity, and diligently controlling fisheries
• Increasing transparency of decision-making.

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Find other files produced or co-signed by ClientEarth related to the annual negotiations on fishing opportunities from 2015 onwards here.