Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 4 • Number 1 • 22nd January 2004
EU AGREES COD RECOVERY PLAN AND 2004 QUOTAS
EU AGREES COD RECOVERY PLAN AND 2004 QUOTAS
In late December 2003, the European Council of Fisheries Ministers adopted a long-term recovery plan for cod as well as 2004 quotas for cod, hake, whiting and other fish species. Commenting on the reform plans scientists and environmentalists criticised the plans for being based on short-term thinking disastrous for fish resources. In related news a ban on fish imports from Kenya and Egypt to Europe was lifted.
Following all-night talks on 19 December, the annual three-day Council meeting agreed on more lenient quotas than proposed by fisheries scientists — who had suggested a total catch ban on cod and hake in certain areas — given that long-term recovery measures would be in place for the most threatened species. The Council also agreed to limit the days at sea of the EU fishing fleet, and to improve monitoring to ensure that the fishing industry kept to the set quotas. While cod and hake quotas were kept at 2003 levels, the quotas for prawn and haddock, deemed in better health, were increased. During the talks, Spain, Denmark, France and the UK pushed for higher quotas in the talks, while countries such as Germany and Sweden spoke up in favour of following the advice given by the scientists.
Last week, the EU Commission also presented long term plans to reduce by 10 percent annually, catches and the number of fishable days for sole and hake caught in southern waters and for the Norway lobster. The plan also includes closing five fishing grounds around the Iberian Peninsula to replenish Norway lobster stocks. The plans would run between five and ten years, or until scientists deem the stocks as no longer threatened.
The aim of the reform plans is to allow severely depleted stocks to recover at rates ranging from 5 to 30 percent per year. "The long-term aim is to keep fishing and if there are no fish, we cannot do that," said EU Fisheries Commissioner Franz Fischler. The 2002 EU Common Fisheries Plan reform had placed emphasis on a longer-term approach to managing fisheries, rather than short-term, annual plans (see BRIDGES Trade BioRes, 23 January 2003).
Scientists, environmentalists call for stricter measures
Reacting to the 2004 quotas, the environmental group WWF said that "in supporting a zero catch for cod, the European Commission could have aided the recovery of the fishery, and ensured a future for fishermen", but instead "the Commission has compromised too much, and fish stocks and fishermen will both suffer from this gross mismanagement".
The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) and the EC Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee on Fisheries (STECF) had recommended a moratorium on several cod stocks, and green groups pointed to the fishery off eastern Canada where authorities did not impose a commercial moratorium, resulting in that the cod became commercially extinct in the early 1990s and never has recovered. European cod stocks are now at only one-tenth of their 1970s levels. UK scientists at the Royal Society stressed that fishing quotas set by politicians were, on average, 20 to 30 percent too high and that "essentially this is condemning the fishing industry in 10 to 20 years time. Putting the short-term interests of the constituents before the long-term interests of the industry is not a solution".
In related news, the EU also ratified the UN Agreement on the Conservation and Management of Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish in December.
EU lifts fish import bans for Kenya and Egypt
During the recent meeting of the EU Standing Committee on Food Chain and Animal Health member countries agreed to lift a ban on fish imports from Kenya and Egypt. The agreement came after EU inspectors indicated that Kenya and Egypt meet all the conditions that were imposed on the imports two and four years ago, respectively. The import ban was imposed due to health and sanitary concerns and limited fish exports to bilateral trade agreements with individual European countries. Kenya is now looking forward to raising its exports to the EU by 100 percent.
"Europe Sets Recovery Plan, Not Ban, for Cod Fishing," ENS, 22 December 2003; "Outcome of the Fisheries Council of 17-19 December 2003," EC RELEASE, 22 December 2003; "Fish quotas aim to halt decline," BBC, 19 December 2003; "European fishery officials inching toward agreement," AP, 19 December 2003; "EU fishers protest protections for depleted fish stocks," AP, 11 December 2003; "EU floats more plans to save fish from extinction," PLANETARK, 16 January 2004; "EU lifts ban on fish exports," EAST AFRICAN STANDARD, 20 January 2004; "EU lifts ban on Egyptian fish imports: minister," EUBUSINESS.COM, 16 January 2004.