During the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) meeting in Madrid from 20 to 22 February, agreement was reached among ICCAT Contracting Parties on the allocation of fishing quotas for Mediterranean Swordfish as part of an agreement under the recovery plan for this species put forward by the European Commission and adopted by ICCAT last year.

The Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) invites applications for the position of Assistant Scientist.

European Commissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Karmenu Vella, and Administrator Hong Wang of the Chinese State Oceanic Administration took part in the third EU-China High Level Dialogue on Ocean Affairs today.

After the United States of America and Chile, the European Union is proud to host the 4th edition of the "Our Ocean" conference, at the initiative of High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini and European Commissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Karmenu Vella.

The EU is concerned by IATTC's failure to adopt a robust, science-based conservation measure for tropical tuna in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. A last-minute agreement reached last week applies a catch limit for certain fisheries in 2017, but falls short of what is needed to guarantee long-term sustainable management of tuna stocks. Moreover, despite EU support for a plan to reduce fleet overcapacity in the region, capacity continues to increase.

Commissioner Karmenu Vella, responsible for fisheries and maritime affairs, has travelled to Morocco to attend the Halieutis fair in Agadir. Speaking at the opening conference yesterday, he stressed the European Union's strong bilateral ties on fisheries with Morocco as well as, more generally, the value of international cooperation in tackling shared ocean-related challenges.