Out of the Abyss: Transforming EU Rules to Protect the Deep Sea -- Pew

 Out of the Abyss: Transforming EU Rules to Protect the Deep Sea is a report by the Pew Research Center that summarises the current problems in the regulation of deep-sea fisheries in the northeast Atlantic by the EU, including weak catch and effort limits, lack of knowledge of the status of deep-sea fish stocks and the impact of fishing; incomplete deep-sea species coverage; deficient monitoring and control measures; significant data and reporting gaps; and a lack of sufficient measures to ensure sustainability and protect vulnerable deep-sea ecosystems such as cold-water coral reefs from the harmful impacts of bottom fisheries.

Various assessments have found that the EU’s deep-sea fisheries management regime for the northeast Atlantic is inadequate, poorly enforced, and inconsistent with EU and international principles, agreements and legal obligations for the sustainable management of fisheries. As a result, leading scientific authorities have concluded that the EU’s fisheries for deep-sea species in the northeast Atlantic are ‘outside safe biological limits’ and that deep-sea fishing should be significantly reduced or ended entirely.