EU Calls For Fishing Closures To Stop Cod Dying Out
Date: 09-Dec-04
Country: BELGIUM
Author: Jeremy Smith
In the past, the European Commission has rejected the idea of closing waters to trawlermen for fear of destroying remote coastal communities dependent on fishing for their livelihood.
Now, with the first small signs of growth in depleted cod stocks in around 10 years, it says the pressure must be kept up.
"As we can see from the most recent scientific advice, more still needs to be done to rebuild the most depleted fish stocks," EU Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg said.
"The fact that further measures are required does not mean that the pain that resulted from the restrictions ... over the past few years has been in vain. They have started having an effect, but that effect has not yet been sufficient," he said.
Five areas would close in the North Sea, or roughly 20 percent of one of Europe's largest cod grounds, and one in waters off the west coast of Scotland, where cod has almost disappeared due to years of chronic overfishing.
Trawlermen already face restrictions on the number of days they may go to sea to fish for cod -- a dinner staple in many countries -- as well as ceilings on the amount they can catch.
In the North Sea, there would be no change to this although cod fishermen would have three fewer days off western Scotland.
In return, there would be more availability of species like haddock in northern UK waters: a sop to Scottish and Irish fishermen unable to catch cod in their usual grounds. To balance this, haddock quotas would be cut in EU waters off Norway.
Partial closures were proposed for parts of the Celtic and Baltic Seas during the crucial three-month cod spawning period.
For the threatened Norway lobster, a shellfish which looks like a cross between a large prawn and small lobster, five fishing grounds would be shut around the Iberian peninsula but catches would be raised in the North Sea to compensate.
In a policy change from previous years when it pushed for massive cuts to the fishing quotas allocated each year to EU countries, the Commission now wants far gentler quota reductions but on condition that these continue for several years.
The steepest annual cuts, of up to 80 percent, were for threatened deepwater species that are becoming an alternative to depleted mainstays like cod and hake: fish with exotic names like orange roughy, black scabbardfish and forkbeards.
EU fisheries ministers will haggle over Borg's proposals in their traditional marathon debate starting on Dec. 21.
