Brussels, 21/11/2006 (Agence Europe) - In Brussels on 21 November, after two days of discussions, European fisheries ministers reached unanimous political agreement on total allowable catches (TACs) and quotas for deep-water species for the next two years. Reductions in fishing possibilities were agreed, particularly for grenadier, blue ling, orange roughy and deep-sea shark, while possibilities for other species (red bream, black scabbardfish and greater forkbeard) were held at their current (2005-2006) levels. Quotas for these species of fish were introduced in 2003. The main quotas decided (compared with current quotas) were: blue ling: reduction of 20% in 2007 then of a further 20% in 2008, that is, respective reductions of 2,500t and 2,009t in the main zone situated to the west of the British Isles (1,897t and 1,518 for France, and 452t and 302t for the United Kingdom); grenadier: reduction of 15% to the west of the British Isles (to 4,600t, of which 3,789t for France, 299t for Ireland and 222t for the United Kingdom) and a reduction of 15% in the waters of the Iberian Peninsula (6,114t, of which 4,391t for Spain and 1,374t for Poland); - black scabbardfish: current quotas retained (2005-2006) in all zones, of which 8,241t for Portugal and 2,433 for France; orange roughy: reductions of between 50% and 80% between 2007 and 2008; shark: 60% reduction in most zones; alfonsinsos: current quotas of 328t retained, especially for Portugal (214t); red bream: extension of the current TAC in all zones (a total of 4,515t, with most possibilities for Portuguese and Spanish vessels); greater forkbeard: extension of 2006-2006 quotas, 2,028t of which for the stock to the west of the British Isles (814t for the United Kingdom, 588t for Spain and 356t for France). (lc)