Haggling continues over EU fishing quotas

Talks to agree the depth of more fishing cuts were still going on in Brussels today.

The debate over permitted catches and limits on time at sea for trawlers entered its third day after gruelling all-night negotiations between EU fisheries ministers.

As dawn broke they were still haggling over the exact level of another round of devastating curbs on fishing in the interests of conservation.

The European Commission has stopped short of recommending a total ban on cod fishing in the North Sea, Irish Sea and off the west coast of Scotland, despite the advice of scientific experts.

But EU Fisheries Commissioner Franz Fischler warned governments and the industry last night that it was in no-one’s interests to push for concessions when stocks of the main species, particularly cod, are facing extinction.

“The long-term aim is to keep fishing and if there are no fish we cannot do that,” he said.

Backing him up is a report from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) warning that nothing short of closure of key fishing grounds will do after years of failed conservation schemes which have not led to the promised revival of stocks.

Mr Fischler has stopped short of recommending complete closure.

He has already recognised the fishermen’s continuing plight by resisting a total ban, offering instead the least-worst option – more deep cuts in permitted catches and more vessel lay-offs.

Whatever the outcome today, the deal will be bad news for fishing fleets suffering from years of enforced belt-tightening.

During the night ministers argued for the best deal they could, but pressure remained to accept the need for drastic reductions of up to 65% in annual permitted catches for species such as hake and sole, and further limits of 10 days at sea per month in the worst-hit fishing grounds.

Also on the table is the promise of longer-term recovery plans for cod, ending the annual bartering and giving the fishing industry a clearer idea of their prospects beyond the usual 12-month cycle under the Common Fisheries Policy.

A key issue is to how to enable fishermen to continue fishing plentiful stocks, such as North Sea haddock, while sparing the "by-catch'' of cod they accidentally take in their nets.

As the talks dragged on, Scottish fishermen in particular were clinging to the hope that a deal will be based around allowing them to carry on fishing full-time – as long as they take little or no cod from the sea.

How to enforce such an agreement was still plaguing the ministers this morning - particularly as failure to police the seas has been blamed for the continuing state of fish stocks despite many years of conservation.

The Commission says EU governments have for too many years insisted on fish catch quotas as much as a third higher than recommended by the experts.

Fishermen, too, have been blamed for exceeding the catch quotas which are agreed, thanks to inadequate policing at sea.

But no-one, apart from the Germans and Swedes, believes the total closure of cod grounds recommended by ICES is a realistic option.

But the message at the talks – not for the first time – is that over-fishing will one day mean no fishing at all.

Environment charity WWF has warned against the usual compromises: “The future of Europe’s fish stocks depends on ending unrealistic and politically-driven fish quotas, the main cause of the current fisheries crisis.

“Short-term political dealing is not the answer to the long-term recovery of fish stocks,” said Charlotte Mogensen, WWF’s EU Fisheries Policy Officer.

The WWF said that if EU governments ignore the ICES advice “they will preside over the collapse of this valuable commercial species with drastic consequences for fish stocks and the communities that rely on them”.

According to ICES, the number of young fish boosting cod populations in the North Sea in the first quarter of this year was the lowest for 20 years, and the WWF said it is now clear that the EU’s “cod recovery plan”, first proposed in 2001, has been a failure.

But Mr Fischler said it is not all gloom and doom: apart from North Sea haddock, stocks of mackerel are said to be relatively healthy.