09/12/2002 (Agence Europe) - The EP approved the two year extension of the protocol to the fishing agreement between the European Community and Angola (until August 2004) when it adopted the report by Carlos Lage (PES, Portugal). The protocol foresees an annual increase in financial compensation from EUR 13.9 million to EUR 15.5 million and a slight cut in EU tuna fishing ships (from 43 to 33) (see Europe of 6 July 2002). The ships with fishing rights are from Spain, France, Portugal, Italy, Greece and the Netherlands. The fishing opportunities remain unchanged for prawns (22 ships), but the tonnage of ships fishing demersal fish has increased from 3750 to 4200 gross register tons (GRT) per month as an annual average. Two ships can fish on an experimental basis for a six month period for pelagic species (living in the middle depths of the ocean).