Brussels, 15/12/2010 (Agence Europe) - EU agriculture and fisheries ministers reached agreement in the night of Tuesday into Wednesday on an average 18% cut in fishing quotas for cod, a species which has been overfished for several years. The compromise, which refers to the North Sea and the Atlantic, was reached after two days and a night of negotiation among ministers in Brussels, an EU press release says. While the overall reduction in fishing opportunities for cod is some 18%, reductions vary between 3% and 50% depending on the zones. For two areas, in Norwegian waters and also in the west and south-west of Ireland, the Celtic Sea and the Western Channel, the cod quota is unchanged. In the Irish Sea, the quota has been upped by 25%, even though the Commission was calling for a 50% reduction. The European Commission says that it “remains concerned by the state of cod stocks”. For herring, ministers agreed reductions of up to 40% in the west of Ireland and West Scotland. The overall quota, however, has been increased by almost 10%. Sole quotas have risen, too, by as much as 15% in the Channel. French fishermen saw their langoustine quota in the Bay of Biscay remain unchanged.
Ministers also reached a political agreement on a regulation establishing fishing opportunities for certain stocks in the Black Sea for 2011. The Council will adopt this regulation at one of its forthcoming meetings. The main point in the Presidency compromise text drawn up in agreement with the Commission is a 10% reduction in total allowable catches (TACs) for turbot and sprat in the Black Sea. The Council and the Commission agreed that regional cooperation should be put in place for fisheries in the Black Sea in order to promote sustainable management of stocks in the region. The Council called on the Commission to propose the establishment of minimum landing and mesh sizes for the turbot fishery in the Black Sea, while underlining that the TAC levels established in the regulation for 2011 have been set at a level taking into account the continuous application of national provisions existing in Bulgaria and Romania in this regard. (B.C./transl.rt)