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European fisheries ministers reached an agreement over fishing quotas
on Friday after all-night talks ended with a compromise deal to keep fishermen
financially afloat while preserving dwindling fish stocks.
The EU's 15 nations agreed on 2004 catch quotas for all species and shelved
plans for drastic cuts to quotas for cod in some waters off Denmark and
also western Scotland. The new regulations have been heralded as "good
news" for Cornish fishermen by St Ives MP and Lib Dem Shadow Fisheries
Minister, Andrew George.
"It will be a relief to many in the fishing industry that, once
again, they have been brought back from the brink of widespread bankruptcy,"
he said.
"Sensible compromises have been reached which do not undermine the
efforts to secure the recovery of sea cod.
"Since some stock like haddock are in greater abundance than they
have been in a generation, it is right that fishermen should be permitted
to fish these species."
Mr George said that ministers should now move quickly to bring in "devolved
regional management," giving local fishermen and scientists responsibility
for management of fish stocks.
"This would help, more than anything else, the long-term recovery
of most threatened species," he said.
"Far from giving up on fish, British consumers should be taking
a greater interest in the fantastic variety of seafood there is, not just
the poor old cod!"
Fishery ministers in Brussels were presented with evidence by scientists
showing that the cod is at risk of extinction in EU waters with stocks
at the lowest ever recorded.
They also presented reports on stock recovery plans for northern hake,
another of the EU's most endangered species.
Britain's fisheries minister, Ben Bradshaw, declared the talks a "good
deal" for UK fishermen, with increases in permitted catches next
year for species such as haddock and prawns, and an increase from 10 to
15 in the number of days per month trawlers can put to sea.
In return, fleets are pledged to avoid taking what little cod remains
from certain fishing grounds to allow stocks to recover.
"We have successfully defended the number of days our boats are
allowed to fish and we have got a long-term recovery programme for cod,"
said Mr Bradshaw.
The agreements on next year's catches kept the industry alive, he said,
while the "basic principle" of long-term recovery plans for
cod and for hake had been set.
During the talks European fishing industry officials said that the livelihoods
of 200,000 people were at stake over quotas, but scientists countered
that stocks of cod have shrunk in the North Sea to about one-tenth of
the level they were at in 1970.
They warned that urgent measures were needed to protect the EU from what
happened in the waters off eastern Canada in the 1990s, where over-fishing
resulted in the disappearance of cod. The stocks still have not recovered.
Article copyright THE CORNISHMAN
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