Brussels, 20/09/2007 (Agence Europe) - EU fishing professionals do not like the alarmist messages coming from the European Commission about the state of fish stocks and are calling for improvement in the quality of scientific advice.
In a press release published on Thursday 20 September, Europêche (Association of national Fishing Enterprises in the EU) and the fisheries section of COGECA (General Confederation of Agricultural Co-operatives in the European Union) “welcome” the aims of June's Commission communication on expected fishing possibilities for 2008. The two organisations are, however, critical of the Commission's “pessimist and alarming” messages on fish stocks “that induce errors and excessively incriminate the fishery sector and the thousands of families that depend on it”.
Europêche and Cogeca call for an increase in human and financial resources devoted to scientific research on the state of stocks and criticise the sometimes over-use by the Commission of the precautionary principle. It can happen that the Commission proposes a reduction in quotas when there is uncertainty over some scientific opinion (North Sea turbot quotas have often been reduced although the stock has been increasing over the years). They call on the Commission to invest the human and financial means needed to assess the impact of factors other than fishing on the marine environment (climatic conditions, pollution, predators, oil and sand extraction etc.).
Europêche and COGECA are pleased that the Commission is increasingly taking the economic dimension of the Community fishery into account (important seminar held on 14-15 May). (lc)