A statement from GONHS:

GONHS Council is pleased that the long-awaited fishing report has finally been published.

The report concludes and vindicates what GONHS has always maintained: that Gibraltar’s environmental protection laws are sound.  It also states that there are insufficient data on fishing stocks and the state of the marine habitats, and in these cases the well-established precautionary principle must prevail.

GONHS is confident that once the Gibraltar Government has considered these recommendations, and includes these as an active component of the marine management plan, together with the forthcoming legislative measures, that these will form the basis of future protection and conservation that will enhance the marine environment.  

We welcome Government’s plans to regulate marine recreational activities in an environmentally friendly and sustainable manner.  We look forward to an increase in resources for environmental protection and enforcement, and eagerly await monitoring strategies that will provide baseline data of the current state of our marine resources, that will enable Gibraltar to meet its environmental obligations.

GONHS would like to thank the authors and the working group that worked tirelessly in the production of this report.