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Bulgaria: The Black Sea facing ecological disaster due to overfishing

Bulgaria
Published Jun 8, 2021

Tridge summary

Fish stocks in the Black Sea are dwindling and commercial fishing is causing more and more environmental damage, causing concern that has grabbed the attention of NGOs and EU lawmakers. EURACTIV Bulgaria reports. Mackerel stocks are critically endangered in the Black Sea, and all sturgeon and herring species are threatened. Among mammals, the monk seal has disappeared and the common dolphin is among the vulnerable species.

Original content

This worrying picture has been described in the report “Bulgarian fisheries and aquaculture in the Black Sea – economic importance, environmental impact and natural factors influence” published by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in cooperation with the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAN). In the European Parliament, Bulgarian MEP Ivo Hristov, a member of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D), also warned about the overfishing in the Black Sea. He stressed that all species except the sprat are at risk. On the edge “The Black Sea is close to the so-called red line, behind which the process of ecosystem degradation could become irreversible,” warned Dr Radoslava Bekova from the Institute of Oceanology of the Bulgarian Academy of Science (BAN) and author of the study. She added that industrial fishing has the greatest impact, as it directly destroys a significant proportion of the populations of certain species. The data clearly shows that more than 50% of ...
Source: Euractiv
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