(IntraFish) The World Wildlife Fund is urging European Union vessels to act sustainably at home, but also abroad.
As the EU draws up a new Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), rules must make sure that EU vessels fish sustainably outside of EU waters as well as within their own waters, the WWF's UK branch said, according to the Guardian.
A new report by the WWF-UK shows that commercial fishing fleets globally are expanding their range and fishing more intensively, the UK newspaper said.
"The study identified that the area heavily affected by fishing had increased tenfold since the 1950s, to around 100m square kilometres (38 million square miles) - one-third of the world's ocean surface," it said.
"More than 700 EU-flagged fishing vessels now exploit fisheries outside of Europe, including nine UK ships which fish in the Indian Ocean, in the waters of Mauritania, the Falkland Islands, Morocco and in the north-west Atlantic."
"Fishing in foreign waters is led by Spain, whose 424 vessels make up 59 percent of the EU fleet operating in other countries' exclusive economic zones or on the high seas."