Brussels, 04/12/2006 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 1 December, the European Union and Norway reached agreement on levels of fishing possibilities, for next year, on joint fish stocks in the North Sea. On the EU side, these quotas concern particularly German, Danish, Dutch, British and French vessels. Compared with 2006, total allowable catches (TACs) have been reduced for herring (-25%), cod (-14%), plaice (-12%) and increased for mackerel (+11.6%) and haddock (+4.7%). In addition, the EU and Norway have decided to strengthen the North Sea haddock recovery plan, with effect from 2007, and have agreed on the guiding principles for a future long-term management plan for plaice. Similar plans ale-ready exist for cod, haddock, saithe and herring.
Here are the details of the TACs and quotas agreed between the two parties for joint fish stocks in the North Sea: - cod: 19,957 tonnes (t) in 2007, compared with 23,205t in 2006, a reduction of 14%, 16,564t for the EU and 3,393t for Norway; - herring: 341,063t in 2007, a reduction of 25% compared with 2006 (454,751t), with 242,155t for the EU and 98,908t for Norway; plaice: 50,261t in 2007, compared with 57,441t in 2006, a reduction of 12%, with 49,143t for the EU and 1,118t for Norway; saithe: 123,250t in 2007, the same as in 2006 (59,160t for the EU and 64,090t for Norway); whiting: 23,800t in 2007, exactly the same as in 2006 (21,420t for the EU and 2,380t for Norway); haddock: 54,640 in 2007, an increase of 4.7% on the 51,850t of 2006, with 46,983t for the EU and 7,657t for Norway; mackerel: 53,073t in 2007, compared with 47,132t in 2006, an increase of 11.6%, with 18,934t for the EU and 34,139t for Norway.
The two parties are continuing the difficult negotiations on quotas exchanges (catches for Norway in Community waters against quotas for EU vessels in Norwegian waters). For 2006, Norway is allowed to catch 180,787t of various species in the Community zone and Greenland waters, in exchange for 62,955t for Community vessels in Norwegian waters. (lc)