Brussels, 15/02/2007 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 15 February, the European Commission adopted a regulation providing for a reduction in certain fishing quotas for the UK and Ireland in response to overfishing. In line with the provisions of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), the Commission reduces quotas for these countries for the period 2007-2012. The decision follows on from in-depth investigations conducted by the UK authorities in 2005 and 2006.
The reductions stipulated by the Commission will be spread over a number of years in order to avoid undue negative social and economic impacts on the fleets and processing industry affected by the reductions. For this reason also, the maximum annual reduction under this regulation will be 15% of the annual quota to be set by the Council in future TACs and quota regulations. Over the 2001-2004 period, the UK's national quotas were exceeded by 112,546 tonnes in the case of mackerel and 43,961 tonnes in the case of herring. Over the same period, the Irish mackerel quota was overfished by 33,486 tonnes. In 2005, the UK mackerel quota was again exceeded by 5,090 tonnes.
Between 2007 and 2012, the final amounts to be deducted are equivalent to 100% of the amounts overfished for British and Irish herring, but a correction factor of 73% is applied to the quantities of mackerel fished to reflect the significant downward trend in mackerel quotas over that period. Deduction is 100% applied in just one year (2007) in response to overfishing of mackerel by the British fleet in 2005. (lc)