From BBC
ShareSave
Environment Correspondent
ShareSave
A challenge to Britain’s ban on commercial fishing for sandeels in the North Sea has been dismissed in an international court.
Sandeels are a vital source of food for marine life including seabirds that live along the UK coastline.
Two bans for English and Scottish waters were put in place in early 2024 to prohibit trawlers netting the tiny fish, following concerns that sandeel stocks were becoming too low.
Judges at the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) based in The Hague ruled there is no legal obligation to reverse the closure order after the EU claimed the move was “discriminatory and disproportionate”, and could threaten the future of commercial sandeel fishing in Denmark.
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), which manages Bempton Cliffs in East Yorkshire, was one of several conservation organisations that called for the measure to remain in place and gave evidence in the court hearing.
Beccy Speight, the RSPB’s chief executive, said: “We are absolutely delighted the panel has found the ecological case for the closure of industrial sandeel fishing is sound.”
“Safeguarding sandeel stocks is a key part of the jigsaw that will help set our puffins, kittiwakes and the wider marine environment on the path to recovery.”
The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) welcomed the court’s decision and said it had found “the UK successfully demonstrated that the measures taken to close English and Scottish waters were based on the best available science”.
<div data-component="image-block" class="sc-3b6b161a-0
