Brussels unveils plan to overhaul fish industry

A REVOLUTION in the way Europe manages its fishing industry has been unveiled in Brussels, with the warning that the choice is between a near wipe-out of fish stocks or an increase of 70% with a tripling of profits over the next decade.

Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki’s proposals include:

* None of the proposed €6.7bn budget would go to the discredited vessel scrappage schemes.

* The system of allocating quotas of fish species to different countries should be radically changed.

* Dumping small and illegally caught fish overboard should end.

The proposals met with mixed reaction from the industry, member states and conservation groups, meaning there could be long negotiations before the plan is finalised at the end of next year.

The most controversial element of the reform is that member states would allocate the right to fish in their waters for 15 years to the owners of vessels from that country. They could buy and sell these rights under rules set by member states.

The system has worked in the US, Norway, Australia and New Zealand and would allow vessel owners to retire, funded by the market rather than the taxpayer, she said. Studies suggest it would increase incomes by 20% and crew wages could double by 2022.

But while supported by Britain and by Spain, the largest EU fisheries, it has been rejected by Ireland and France. Fisheries Minister Simon Coveney said: “It would lead to the family- owned fishing fleet in Ireland being bought up by European international companies who have the capital to buy our quotas.”

MEP Jim Higgins said: “What is to stop a large set of Spanish fishermen setting up a company in Ireland and buying up all our quotas?”

It was criticised too by the Federation of Irish Fishermen and its chairman Seán O’Donoghue, who described the entire proposal as “an inauspicious starting point for the commission which has lacked ambition in many key areas and gone completely overboard in others”.

Vessels would be free to land all fish caught, doing away with the policy of discards which sees up to a quarter of all fish caught thrown back into the sea.

All catches would be noted on landing allowing for better data of what is being caught and setting limits.

Vessels under 12 metres long would be exempt from having to buy the right to fish from the Government. However, Mr Coveney said he wanted this extended to 15m as this would mean 80% of the Irish fleet was exempted.

MEP Pat the Cope Gallagher, a member of the parliament’s fisheries committee, said proposals were “drawn up to suit the menu of celebrity chefs in their comfortable Chelsea restaurants — far removed from the realities of fishermen”.

Mr Damanaki said: “Our children will only see fish in pictures, not on their plates — so we can prepare the change, co-operate on the change and agree how we are going to meet the targets, but we need change.”