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This cover letter, co-signed by 27 organisations active in the UK and/or the EU across various seabasins, was sent to the UK Fisheries Minister, Daniel Zeichner, accompanying our joint Briefing Series with recommendations to the EU and the UK on fishing opportunities for 2026 and beyond. In parallel, a similar letter was sent to the EU Commissioner for Fisheries, Costas Kadis. In these twin letters, we urge both the UK and the EU to end overfishing of shared stocks and invest in stock and ecosystem resilience in the face of climate change and other mounting pressures, by setting precautionary, ecosystem-based fishing opportunities well below the best available scientific single-stock advice. This is not only essential for healthy fish populations and ecosystems, but also to secure the socio-economic future of thriving fisheries and coastal communities.
The letter to the Minister Zeichner emphasises some of the key points discussed in more detail in the joint Briefing Series, namely the following:
Set catch limits well below the best available scientific single-stock advice for maximum catches (also see our Cover Briefing), with a view to restoring and maintaining fish populations above healthy and productive levels;
Respect the legally binding safeguards in the EU’s Multi-Annual Plans (which are part of Retained EU Law in the UK) against dangerous stock declines below the level where reproductive capacity bay be reduced (also see Briefings 2 and 3);
Recognise shortcomings in the scientific single-stock advice on fishing opportunities and the EU’s and UK’s requests, and develop a clear roadmap with the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) and other ICES clients for how these shortcomings will be swiftly addressed (also see Briefing 3 and this letter to Commissioner Kadis on the topic)
Apply a precautionary and ecosystem-based approach when setting fishing opportunities, with special attention to mixed fisheries and interspecies dynamics (also see Briefings 5 and 6);
Eliminate bycatch and discards, increase selectivity, incentivize low impact fishing through quota allocation based on environmental and social criteria, and diligently control fisheries (also see Briefings 6, 8 and 9); and
Increase transparency of decision-making.
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