Europe to donate redundant fishing boats to tsunami nations

Europe plans to send fishing boats destined for the breaker’s yard to tsunami-devastated areas to help relaunch an industry decimated by the disaster.

“The needs are enormous,” said EU Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg, speaking of thousands of vessels destroyed by the tidal waves and many more needing urgent repairs and more gear.

The damage to fisheries in tsunami-hit countries has endangered the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of families. The EC said the fishing industry was second only to tourism as the economic sector most affected by the disaster.

Within two months, the 25 EU nations want to have a clear idea how many of European vessels destined to be scrapped because of overfishing could be used to help fishing communities from India to Indonesia.

“Public opinion would not understand that we are scrapping vessels while thousands of vessels are destroyed there,” said Luxembourg Fisheries Minister Fernand Boden, who chaired a meeting of the 25 EU fisheries ministers in Brussels today.

The ministers now want to overcome legal impediments on transferring vessels to Asia by the time the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation has a meeting on the issue on March 12.

In addition to commissioning vessels, the EU also wants to send experts to the region to provide technical help to reconstruct the fishing industry and the fish and crustacean farms. The experts would stay in the region for up to three years.