Jeremy Smith, PlanetArk 20 Nov 08;
BRUSSELS - European Union fisheries ministers agreed on Wednesday to changes in a plan aimed at replenishing cod stocks, so severely overfished in EU waters that scientists repeatedly warn of the threat of extinction.
The EU agreed a long-term recovery plan for cod in 2004 but, of the four stock areas that it covers, only one has so far shown any sign of recovery, and even that is limited.
Worried about the cod's chances of survival, the EU will now limit the total amount of fish that may be removed from the sea, based on maximum fishing yields instead of permitted cod catches.
It hopes this change will help reduce the amount of cod that are taken as a by-catch with other fish species and thrown back to die. The aim is to achieve gradual cuts in "fish removals", using these targets as the basis for annual catch quotas.
"We have been able to achieve political agreement by unanimity, making positive changes to the way we manage stocks," EU Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg told a news conference. "This is a significant improvement to the first recovery plan."
Even so, EU ministers weakened some of Borg's proposals, altering "fish removal" rates to allow slightly more cod to be taken out of the sea. They also agreed to set a ceiling of 20 percent on the increase in catch from one year to the next, whereas Borg had wanted a maximum increase of 15 percent.
They turned down his proposal to include the Celtic Sea in the plan, which covers -- as in 2004 -- the North Sea, Irish Sea, west of Scotland, eastern Channel, Kattegat and Skaggerak.
For years now, scientists have said cod is so overfished in European waters that it runs the risk of stock collapse and extinction. Their advice for 2008, for example, was for fishermen to cut the catch to less than half the 2006 volume.
But EU ministers diluted the proposed cut in the quota from last year, setting it at only 18 percent, and raised the final quota by 11 percent in the North Sea -- dismaying conservation groups which attacked any increase while cod recovery seemed precarious.
The ministers also changed the rules limiting the number of days on which trawlers may go to sea, basing them on groups of vessels that use the same fishing tackle, combined with their engine size.
"This is really about proper conservation of cod stocks. It's quite iconic, as well as being economically significant," one EU diplomat said.
"It also sets an important conservation precedent ... and a direction for how the CFP (EU's Common Fisheries Policy) may progress in the future," he said.
(Editing by Tim Pearce)
