Brussels, 20/12/2005 (Agence Europe) - The EU's association of the national fisheries organisations (Europêche) and the fisheries sector of the General Committee of Agricultural Cooperatives in the EU (Cogeca) are highly critical about the European Commission's proposals on total allowable catches (TACs) and quotas for 2006, examined on 20 and 21 December by European ministers (see also other article). Furthermore, these organisations call for the consequences of the oil crisis to be taken into account by ministers during the current negotiations.
European fisheries, represented within the above two organisations, call for the cod stock recovery plan to be fully re-examined, especially for the North Sea, in order to evaluate all the factors that influence the state of resources (climatology, pollution, fish feeding grounds, predators). The measures recommended for anchovies (zero quota until may 2006 in the Gulf of Biscay), herring in the Baltic Sea (up to 32% catch reduction), sand eel in the North Sea (fishing ban during the first half of 2006), and deep water species (20% reduction in fishing in 2006 after a first 10% reduction in 2005) are of “great concern” to the sector as they are deemed too aggressive and harsh and do not take account of the socio-economic consequences entailed, mainly the need to offset losses, both organisations say. They also consider that the closing down of a fishery is still a bad solution due to the fact that pressure is put on other stocks to compensate.
Fisheries call for an increase of 3% more than that proposed for northern hake catches, given the good results of the recovery plan set in place since 2004. They call on EU Member State to increase by 15%, in 2006, the quotas of flat fish caught in the North Sea for which there is no scientific evaluation. According to Europêche, these TACs were cut by half during the last five years “without scientific justification”. Professionals in the sector note that many species are in a good biological state, such as haddock, saithe and herring and that other stocks could maintain the current fishing effort (whiting, several stocks of lobster, plaice and monkfish). Those working in the sector also welcome the fact that the Commission has taken into account two suggestions made by the sector: - seasonal closure, during two months, of cod fishing in the Celtic Sea; - the introduction of a sorting grid for lobster fishing off the southern Brittany coasts (mesh size to protect young hake).