EC cuts fishing quotas as stocks dwindle

The European Commission backed away from a total ban on cod fishing today, despite expert advice warning that stocks face wipe-out.

Instead the Commission is giving fishermen a last chance to save the industry by accepting another round of savage cuts in catch quotas next year and fewer days at sea.

Proposals unveiled today follow the most devastating scientific advice so far on the state of fishing, particularly in the North Sea, Irish Sea and off the west coast of Scotland, where cod is facing extinction.

The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) had advised that it was time to close crucial fishing grounds after years of failed conservation measures.

But, after intense consultations with fishermen’s leaders, EU Fisheries Commissioner Franz Fischler said his plan was to avoid the complete closure of some fisheries next year by stepping up protection measures.

The Commission is not totally ignoring the ICES advice, saying that where ICES recommends a fishing ban, the Commission is calling for reductions in allowed catches of up to 65%, including a 50% cut in hake catches, and for sole.

The ICES report not only called for closure of cod fishing grounds, but warned of the worsening state of whiting, sole and hake in particular.

But Mr Fischler remained convinced he could keep fishing grounds open as long as the new toughest-ever catch reductions and limits on the number of days at sea were fully respected by fishermen and comprehensively policed by national fisheries protection teams.

He is also determined to tackle the problem of the “by-catch” – when endangered species are accidentally landed in the nets of vessels genuinely fishing for other available species.

“Cod and hake, for example, live with a number of other species and are therefore caught in mixed fisheries targeting these other species. In order effectively to protect cod and hake, the amount of fishing must also be decreased in all fisheries likely to catch them,” said Mr Fischler.