Delight as UK ban on sandeel fishing upheld throwing "lifeline" to puffins after EU challenge
The ban was enforced last March, after decades of campaigning finally halted industrial fishing of sand eels in the English North Sea and Scottish waters.
But to the bitter disappointment of conservationists, the European Commission demanded it was lifted, claiming it breached the UK’s post-Brexit breakup deal.
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Hide AdIt led to a three-day tribunal in the Hague, which has now ruled that the UK succeeded in the majority of its arguments, and the decision to close Scottish waters was fully upheld.


The tribunal identified a procedural error in the decision to close English waters.
However it does not mean the UK is legally obliged to reverse the closure of English waters to EU boats fishing for sand eel, the UK government said.
The RSPB was one of dozens of conservation groups to back the ban. They say the small, innocuos looking fish which spends most of its life buried in sand is the most important in the North Sea ecosystem as they are the mainstay of marine food webs that support wildlife from cod to kittiwakes.
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Hide AdMany seabirds – including those at RSPB Bempton Cliffs - rely on sandeels to feed their chicks.
Beccy Speight, RSPB chief executive, said: “We are absolutely delighted the panel has found the ecological case for the closure of industrial sandeel fishing is sound.
"Also, that UK governments are within their rights to restrict sandeel fishing in UK waters to protect this valuable food source for declining seabirds.
“This has been a great example of collaboration between the UK and Scottish governments, and all those in civil society across the UK and the EU that have campaigned long and hard for our threatened seabirds.
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Hide Ad"We now expect the UK government and the EU to move forward and make this closure permanent.
"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.”
Danish fishermen, who have 96 per cent of the EU’s sandeel quota in the North Sea, claimed the ban is "discriminatory" as it only really affects EU fishermen.
In 2023 Danish fishers were awarded a quota of 180,000 tonnes of the fish which are turned into fish oil and meal to feed farmed fish and livestock like pigs.
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Hide AdLast year Jens Schneider Rasmussen, Chairman of Denmark’s Pelagic Producer Organisation said the ban had been decided in a process “devoid of independent scientific advice and proportionality” and “clearly violates the Brexit agreement made on December 24, 2020”.
A government spokesperson said: "We welcome the clarity provided by this decision, and we will undertake a process in good faith to bring the UK into compliance on the specific issues raised by the tribunal. We remain committed to protecting our seabirds and the wider marine environment, in accordance with our commitments to the TCA and other international agreements.”