EU Strikes Deal on Fish Quotas, Aims to Save Cod
Date: 23-Dec-05
Country: BELGIUM
Author: Jeremy Smith
Despite advice from scientists for a blanket ban on cod trawling in areas like the North Sea and western Scottish waters, the ministers agreed to average cuts of 15 percent and also reduced the days that cod-fishing vessels may spend at sea.
This was an especially sensitive area for countries like Britain whose white-fish fleets, sailing mainly out of Scotland, are already obliged to tie up their boats for weeks on end.
The European Commission, which administers the EU's fishing policy, was forced to offer some slight increases in its initial catch proposals, along with a few seasonal closures of waters to protect overfished species whose numbers are worryingly low.
Prawn quotas were raised for the North Sea and Bay of Biscay by up to 30 percent from 2005, for example, based on scientific advice that these fish stocks could support increased fishing.
Elsewhere, quotas for the EU's major stocks of cod, herring and whiting were reduced by some 15 percent, diplomats said.
Trawlers that target species like haddock and monkfish will also be limited in the days they may spend at sea to stop them picking up too much cod by accident, with reductions ranging from 5 to 10 percent in the number of permitted days per year.
COD STOCKS "ALARMING"
The Commission says cod stocks are in a "truly alarming" state in many areas like the North and Irish Seas, waters off western Scotland and between Denmark and Sweden - and so low in some waters that scientists cannot reliably estimate numbers.
"The agreement reached will provide greater protection for the species most threatened. Overall fishing possibilities will be reduced ... also for those species for which cod is a by-catch," EU Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg said.
"On the overall package, I think it is a very satisfactory deal," he told a news conference after the deal was reached.
Borg yielded more ground from his original quota plan by offering slight rises in catch allowances for various species to win over reluctant states like France and Spain, and brokering a deal over anchovy in the key Bay of Biscay trawling ground.
The species is so depleted in this area that anchovy fishing will now be closed until March to give younger fish a chance to grow and better opportunities for the species' spawning season.
Following intense pressure from both countries, Borg agreed to a small annual quota of 5,000 tonnes from this date, nearly all for Spain - with the proviso that if stocks have not recovered sufficiently by then, the closure would be extended.
The ministers also agreed a 10 percent cut in days spent at sea hunting for Europe's deepwater fish, exotic but threatened species that are fast becoming an alternative to cod and hake, half of what the Commission had wanted.
Bearing names like orange roughy, black scabbardfish and forkbeard, these fish reproduce far more slowly than fish living in shallower waters and are more vulnerable to overfishing.
On Wednesday, the ministers agreed fishing quotas for the Baltic Sea and set higher cod quotas than 2005, but with several areas closed to vessels during the spawning season.
