EU's Cod Fishermen May See Quotas Cut By A Quarter
Date: 11-Nov-08
Country: BELGIUM
BRUSSELS - Europe's fishermen may see their catches curtailed by up to a quarter next year if EU ministers sign up to recommendations that aim to protect a string of species such as cod and haddock from more overfishing.
In quota proposals for 2009 issued on Monday by the European Commission, the EU executive, most quota cuts are at 25 percent but go as low as 10 percent under long-term recovery plans.
"We have made real progress in fisheries management over the last six years and we are starting to see positive results, such as the recovery in certain stocks under long-term management plans," EU Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg said.
"But this good news remains the exception, not the rule. There has been so much overfishing over many years that the balance of the marine ecosystems on which our fisheries depend, is seriously disturbed," he said in a statement.
The Commission's proposals, to be discussed next month by EU ministers in negotiations that usually drag through the night, call for 2009 quotas to be cut by 25 percent from this year's levels, for most waters, for cod, haddock, herring and whiting.
Cod fishermen would also see a reduction in the number of days they are allowed to trawl, based on a vessel's engine size.
For years, scientists have warned that cod is so badly overfished in EU waters that it runs the risk of extinction.
But the Commission usually shies away from proposing outright fishing bans or a "zero catch", fearful of the economic impact it would have on small coastal communities that depend on fishing for their livelihood.
This year, however, its proposals call for a fishing ban for two species of deep-sea shark, spurdog and porbeagle, as well as the creation of protection zones for blue ling in west Scotland.
The problem is worsened by poor controls and fines that, until recently, were not set high enough to deter lawbreakers.
In May, the Commission signalled all was not well in the fisheries sector when it issued a policy statement changing the basis for calculating its proposed fish catch volumes for 2009 and said 88 percent of EU fish stocks were overexploited.
That compared with 80 percent at the same stage last year and a global average of just 25 percent, it said.
Proposed quota cuts for sole ranged up to 25 percent depending on area, although for waters in the Irish Sea the quota could be increased by 7 percent, the Commission said. Plaice quotas would mostly fall 15 percent from 2008 levels.
Catch quotas for the threatened Norway lobster, which looks somewhat like a large prawn, would be set between 10 and 15 percent lower in 2009.
(Reporting by Jeremy Smith; Editing by Louise Ireland)
