<p>The EU considers that current fishing practices are not always sustainable. Not only do these activities place undue pressures on fished species, but they also damage the marine ecosystem as a whole. The EU’s aim is fisheries management with no significant adverse impacts on species and ecosystems so that all European oceans and seas can be ecologically diverse and dynamic, as well as clean, healthy and productive by 2020. The EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive complements the Birds and Habitats Directives and aims to protect the marine environment and establish a good environmental quality through various measures, including the designation of marine protected areas, adapting fishing activities and involving the fisheries sector in alternative activities such as ecotourism, monitoring marine biodiversity and the fight against marine litter.The relevant conventions, directives and agreements have been implemented in national policy and legislation, including the policy documents Natural Capital Agenda (NCA, 2013) and the national nature vision The Natural Way Forward – Government Vision 2014 (NV), and since the decentralisation of nature policy in the provincial Nature Visions (PVs) and in the Nature Pact (NP, 2013), the agreement between the Dutch government and the provinces on the implementation of Dutch nature policy. In the NBSAP the following objectives are related to the fourth main target of the European biodiversity strategy:o&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;By 2020, both the aquaculture chain and the wild-caught fish chain will meet international sustainability criteria for stock management and biodiversity (NCA).</p>