Brussels, 27/11/2001 (Agence Europe) - In a press release published on Monday, Europêche (Association of National Organisations of Fishing Enterprises in the EU) and the Fishing Division of COGECA (General Committee of Agricultural Cooperatives in the EEC) expressed their concerns about the proposals the European Commission will soon be adopting on the long-term strategy for restoring stocks of cod and hake in Community waters (the proposals still need to be adopted by the Council and complement the emergency technical measures already taken by the Commission, Ed). The two industry groups believe that it is "unacceptable" for the plans to be accompanied by a 40-50% cut in fishing and call for yearly variations in TACs (Total Allowable Catches) to be restricted to 15% or thereabouts in order to avoid over-destabilising operating conditions for fishing companies. They point out that the Commission has already cut the TACs for cod by 73% and for hake by 60% over the last 8 and 6 years respectively.
Europêche and COGECA insist that these two species are fished in a different fashion and should therefore be covered by separate measures. They believe the hake situation is not as catastrophic as is often made out, once one looks at the scientific data. They point out that the plans to restore hake and cod stocks also cover other species like haddock, plaice, sole, Norway lobster, anglerfish and sardines (caught in same nets). To compensate for the economic losses suffered by fishermen who have to abide by the cod and hake restoration plans, Europêche and COGECA stress that the current structural measures be fully activated and call for new Community credits to take account of the state of various fish stocks.
The technical measures the Commission has already taken for code and hake are an important instrument for restoring fish stocks, the two organisations believe. They add that the success of the measures will depend on how simple and fair they are and how they adapt to the different fishing zones, and also on the assessment of how the emergency measures that were adopted during 2001 have actually panned out, particularly in terms of meshing. They want the new technical measures to be put off for at least six months (they are scheduled to be implemented as from 1 January 2002).