For everyone with an interest in European fishery

Welcome to

The Internet-conference - ”EU and the future fishery”.

The Danish Society for a Living Sea hereby welcomes everyone to an Internet conference, and we encourage you to take active part in the conference. The purpose is to discuss the future fishery and the solutions to some of the big problems, which the fishery is in the midst of. The conference should hopefully end up in such a way that we can send a declaration of support for the real fishery (the fishery which is not damaging the stocks, nor the marine environment) to the use of the EU ministers’ council, which will conduct a marathon meeting in Brussels from 16th – 19th of December.

The conference is addressing fishermen, politicians, administrators, biologists, and others with interest in the fishery trade, and the marine environment.

For the participants:

·        The conference adress is: voicecafe.optecs.net/cyberlingcm/voice.html

·        Username: "future"

·        Password for the conference: "eufish"

·        Conference telephones: 0045 97 89 54 55 or 0045 51 27 54 20

·        Conference e-mail: llh@levende-hav.dk

·        Conference web-site: www.levende-hav.dk

 

Opening hours for the internet conference

§         Friday                     13.12, 17.00 – 19.00

§         Saturday                 14.12, 11.00 – 13.00, and again 16.00 – 18.00

§         Sunday                   15.12, 11.00 – 16.00. Press conference 16.00 – 17.00

The program

 

Friday 13.12

12.00 – 13.00 arrival to the conference base at the North Sea Folk High School in Hirtshals.

12.00 - 13.30 lunch

13.00 – 14.00 introduction of the participants. Suggestions for the agenda are presented Discussed and agreed upon.

14.00 – 15.00 the participants are introduced to the technical procedures of the internet conference.

15.00 – 15.30 coffee break

15.30 – 17.00 presentation of the conference themes. New suggestions are presented and discussed. The first presentation in the internet meeting room is made ready.

17.00 – 19.00 first round of the internet conference

19.00 – 20.00 dinner

20.00 – 21.00 evaluation of the day and preparation of the program for Saturday.

21.00 - socializing – with input from cyberspace (if there”is anybody out there”).   

 

Saturday 14.12

08.00 – 09.00 breakfast

09.00 – 11.00 recollecting the results from Friday. New strategies are discussed and passed for presentation in the second round of the internet conference. 

11.00 – 13.00 second round of the internet conference.

13.00 - 14.00 lunch

14.00 – 15.30 drawing of the first suggestion for the declaration of support for the real fishery.

15.30 – 16.00 coffee break

16.00 – 17.00third round of the internet conference

17.00 – 18.00 evaluation of the results of the day, and determination of the final agenda for the fourth and last round on Sunday.

18.00 – 20.00 banquet

20.00 – socializing. With a visit to Den Gule Kro (”The Yellow Inn”) in Hirtshals.

Sunday 15.12

08.00 – 09.00 breakfast

09.00 – 10.00 passing of the recommendations which will be send to the EU chairmanship.

10.00 – 11.00 last polishing of the agenda and program for the fourth round.

11.00 – 16.00 fourth round of the internet conference.

16.00 – 17.00 Press conference

 

Monday 16.12 – Thursday 19.12

During the meeting in the ministers council in Brussels , we from The Danish Society for a Living Sea will follow up on the results of our conference, and every day there will be news and press releases send out. This work you can follow at www.levende-hav.dk, where you will also find information on how to make your voice heard through this and other initiatives.

 

More information:

From the 13th – 16th of December 2002, The Danish Society For A Living Sea hosts a European fishery internet conference, with the aim of adopting a declaration of support to the coastal fishery and the fishery, which does not damage the stocks, nor the marine environment (the ”real fishery”). The declaration should be delivered to the EU ministers of fishery in connection with the council meeting in Brussels from 16th –19th of December. At the council meeting it is expected that agreement will be reached about the fishery reform, which has been on its way for more than 10 years now.

The conference will take place in Hirtshals, at the North of Jutland, where some 20 experts will be gathered. This group will be responsible for the contents and the agenda, in the time up to and during the conference.

The conference itself will be carried out on Sunday the 15th of December, from 10.00-16.00, with a maximum attendance of 500 people. At 16.00 a press conference will be arranged, where journalists are invited to ask questions to the participants.

The technical part of the conference consists in a so-called ”virtual conference room”. You ”enter” the conference room via a computer, and for active participation in the conference, where you can both read and talk to the other participants, you need access, and a password, which is attained through the mail address llh@levende-hav.dk . Your computer needs to be equipped with a loud speaker and microphone. The conference room, which appears in the shape of a homepage, has the necessary tools, and an introduction in using the room is also available on the site.

A technical leader will be responsible for the technical implementation of the conference, and it will be headed by a conference chairman. The leadership will take place like in an ordinary conference, where the chairman sees to it that all participants get to speak, and that they will be asked to halt, whenever that is necessary. The chairman will also be responsible of keeping the conference on track, i.e. that it will stick to the agenda. If any participants should not act in accordance with common practice, they can be denied the word for a longer period, and receive a warning – a yellow card. In a case of continued disturbance of the order of the conference, the leadership can then decide to give a red card, and expel the participant from the conference.

In the days preceding the main conference, i.e. Friday and Saturday, different kinds of meetings will be held, both entirely unformal ones, as well as more official, and bilateral meetings, in order to get clear on the agenda for the conference, and also to get familiar with the technique. These meetings can take place in several languages. There might be participants who prefer to articulate their questions or comments in another language than English, and they will have a possibility to send their contributions for the preliminary meetings. The time schedule of these meetings will be send out via e-mail to the conference participants, and they will also be found at the www.living-sea.dk

In the days following the conference, i.e.16th – 19th December, when the council meeting is taking place in Brussels , the results of the conference will be send to the responsible in the EU commission, in the national governments, and to the European media. These approaches will be in shape of concrete suggestions and comments to the negotiations in Brussels .

Technical information

1. Background for the Internet conference    

2. Background for the Internet conference 

 

·         This conference is an attempt. It remains to be seen how the technique will behave, and whether the fishermen are keen on using this kind of transnational forum for contact.

·         The main reason for trying this is the fishermen. They rarely themselves take initiatives for meetings, seminars, and conferences, nor do they have time to accept many invitations. 

·         In this way, the professional counceling within the fisheries in the EU has become seriously out of proportions, since it is only provided by the big national organizations within the fishery trade. 

·         These organizations should represent the fishery political viewpoints and beliefs of the fishermen, but they are in fact very far from actually representing the great variety of types of fishery and traditions within the trade, which ranges from the vast modern and highly expensive ocean trawler, to the very small dinghy, which conducts a small scale coastal fishery.