EU fishermen to help assess fish stocks

Europe’s fishermen are to be given a key role in assessing the state of dwindling stocks, the European Commission announced this afternoon.

The move is designed to counter complaints about the inaccuracy of scientific advice on which drastic EU cuts in permitted fishing are based.

The UK fleet is facing the worst belt-tightening yet, following warnings from the experts that cod is virtually extinct in the North Sea, Irish Sea and off the west coast of Scotland.

Fish catch quotas have been slashed by between 40% and 80%, with some vessels forced to stay in port for nine days a month or more.

But fishermen’s leaders say the science is outdated by the time it is assessed by the Commission – and that in some fishing grounds cod stocks are actually reviving.

If EU Fisheries Commissioner Franz Fischler had followed the scientific advice to the letter, vast areas of the sea would now be closed entirely to let stocks revive.

But Struan Stevenson, chairman of the European Parliament Fisheries Committee and Scottish Conservative MEP, successfully argued that the recommendations would be catastrophic for the fleet, costing 20,000 jobs and £1 billion to the UK economy.

He backed the fishing industry’s insistence that the scientific evidence needed updating to take account of cutbacks already endured by the UK fleet.

Now Mr Fischler has conceded that closer involvement of fishermen themselves will help the experts more accurately pinpoint the fisheries crisis areas, steering the fleet to more sustainable grounds.

Mr Fischler said the aim was reliable, comprehensive, transparent and up-to-date scientific advice: “Today more than ever before, when so many fish stocks are heavily over-exploited, decisions on fisheries management have to be firmly grounded in science.

“The Commission wants to tackle the shortcomings that reduce the reliability, transparency and timeliness of scientific advice, and one of these options is increased cooperation between fishermen and scientists.

“This will be facilitated by the establishment of Regional Advisory Councils to strengthen the interaction between the scientists and the fishing industry.”

Fishermen’s leaders and the experts will consult each other directly at regular Advisory Council meetings, ensuring the latest and most accurate fish stock information is fed into the calculations on the scale of conservation measures and fishing cutbacks required.

The hope is that the industry will be more accepting of the need for belt-tightening in future if fishermen themselves have played a key part in the figures on which fish catch limits are based.

The Commission has partly blamed EU governments for the current crisis, arguing that ministers have failed to enforce previous conservation agreements, while fishermen themselves have illegally exceeded previous fish catch limits.

The new advisory councils will be in addition to continuing conservation efforts built around strict enforcement of catch quotas and fleet reductions, coupled with cash aid for fleet de-commissioning, and early retirement and re-training schemes for fishermen prepared to leave the beleaguered sector.