EU plan to cut some fish quotas ‘perverse’

FISHERMEN have criticised as “perverse” plans to reduce the amount of some fish they can catch next year, under European Commission proposals that would shut the cod fisheries in the Irish Sea.

These were the first shots fired in the annual battle between Brussels and the fishing industry on foot of the proposals for the total allowable catch for over 70 species in EU waters.

Cod recovery has been so successful in some parts of the Atlantic and North Sea that fishermen will be allowed to catch more than double the quantity next year compared to this year in certain areas, including the Celtic Sea.