Europe Sets Recovery Plan, Not Ban, for Cod Fishing

BRUSSELS, Belgium, December 22, 2003 (ENS) - The European Council of Fisheries Ministers has stopped short of imposing a moratorium on cod fishing to save the threatened species as scientists and environmentalists advocate. Instead, the ministers emerged from a night of negotiations Friday with the first long term recovery plan ever crafted for cod and several other fish species.

The reform of European Union fisheries policy is not just a "paper tiger" or rather a "paper cod," said European Fisheries Commissioner Franz Fischler, announcing long term cutbacks to quotas for fish species including cod. Once the staple food of Europeans, cod stocks have crashed due to overfishing.

The long term recovery plans will be put in place for fish stocks such as cod, hake and plaice. Cod quotas remained about the same as last year, with no reduction in cod quotas for the North Sea.

Also, there will be a 55 percent increase in quota for haddock in the North Sea, a fishery that has bycatch of cod.

Franz Fischler is European commissioner for fisheries, rural affairs and agriculture. (Photo courtesy Office of the Commissioner)

For threatened stocks, annual measures that have proved inadequate will be replaced by multi-annual programs tailored to each region and the state of each fishery, Fischler said. These will involve not only catch quotas and restrictions on fishing effort but also tighter policing.

Fishermen will be able to continue fishing at a reduced level and will not have to stop altogether, but there will be a cutback in the level of fishing effort permitted for some species.

The conservation organization WWF condemned the decision to "ignore scientific advice" and to allow fishing for cod and hake to continue in the North Sea in 2004.

"In supporting a zero catch for cod, the European Commission could have aided the recovery of the fishery, and ensured a future for fishermen," said Simon Cripps, Director of WWF's Endangered Seas Programme. "The Commission has compromised too much, and fish stocks and fishermen will both suffer this gross mismanagement."

"I know that the next few years will not be easy ones for some fishermen," Fischler said. "However, these long term plans will finally give them a clearer view of what to expect and will ensure at the end of the day that the future of the EU's fishing industry is more secure. This is ultimately my main concern."

One of Europe's favorite dishes, fish and chips, could become a food of the past if overfishing continues. (Photo courtesy FreeFoto)

But WWF Fisheries Officer Charlotte Mogensen said Europe’s common long term interest in saving fish stocks and fishing communities was again sacrificed for short term gain. "The ministers have displayed a complete lack of vision.," she said. "The proposed recovery plans by EU ministers will simply not lead to recovery."

The European exploitation of the cod fishery centuries ago set in motion the acquisition of North America and the development of mercantile empires. British, French, and Dutch seafaring traditions were built in part on the fishing industry.

On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, cod once congregated in vast schools. Along the Grand Banks, Labrador, and the Gulf of the St. Lawrence, the cod were once in such abundance that they were, for centuries, one of the world’s leading food fishes.

But, due to overfishing, Canada imposed a ban on cod fishing in 1992, and cod is now commercially threatened in European waters.

Royal Society scientists told the British government in October that fish stocks are facing collapse, and by ignoring science and opting for unsustainable quotas, EU ministers could see the death of the fishing industry in up to 10 years.

Fishing boats, Whitby Harbour, North Yorkshire, England (Photo courtesy FreeFoto)

Professor Callum Roberts, marine conservation biologist at the University of York, who worked on the Royal Society’s submission said that fishing quotas set by politicians are on average 20 to 30 percent above those advised by scientists.

“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," Roberts said.

Also on Friday, the European Union and its 15 member states took a step towards fish conservation and management by simultaneously ratifying a United Nations treaty governing fishes that swim both within and beyond exclusive economic zones, known as straddling fish stocks.

EU ratification of the 1995 UN Agreement on the conservation and management of straddling fish stocks and highly migratory fish, such as tuna, was formalized at United Nations headquarters in New York.

This agreement, which entered into force at the end of 2001, applies provisions under the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea relating to the conservation and management of straddling fish stocks.

"I very much welcome the ratification of this agreement. It could not have happened one day too soon," Fischler said. "It demonstrates the EU's commitment to achieving sustainable fisheries through multilateral cooperation."

The agreement implements the precautionary approach and imposes the obligation to settle disputes between nations by peaceful means.

It enforces conservation and management measures through monitoring, control and surveillance.

But much remains to be done, said Fischler, to fill in the legal gaps, strengthen international cooperation and implementation and improve the sustainability of fish stocks.