Fischler threatens ban as fish stocks take a battering

Date: 31/10/02

By David Cronin

FRANZ Fischler, the fisheries commissioner, may urge a ban on catches of cod, haddock or whiting in much of the EU's waters next year, to save the fish from extinction.

His warning follows a recommendation by the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES) for a moratorium on cod fishing in northern Europe's waters.

It is also urging a ban on haddock and whiting catches in the North Sea, Irish Sea and off Scandinavia.

Fischler said under-reporting of catches was a factor in cod stocks falling to their lowest levels, along with the failure of member states to adopt conservation plans.

Given these circumstances, he believes it would be unthinkable for countries such as Spain and Ireland to oppose his proposed reform of the Common Fisheries Policy at the Council of Ministers meeting on 16-19 December.

'We must decide on an improved [stock] recovery plan,' he added. 'If not, we will have no option but to set the 2003 total allowable catch for cod, haddock and whiting at zero.

'The Commission suggested as long ago as last year that fishing effort be limited as part of the recovery plan.

'In the meantime, the situation has gone from bad to catastrophic.'

Heike Vesper of the World Wide Fund for Nature agreed that a radical overhaul could no longer be avoided.

'The long-running annual circus of quota setting and the inability of member states to find the political will to agree decisive action to save the overfished cod stocks has pushed North Sea cod, and the fishing communities that depend on it, to the edge of ruin,' she said.

But Europêche, the umbrella group for European fishermen, queried the accuracy of the ICES statistics.

Franz Fischler, the fisheries commissioner, may urge a ban on catches of cod, haddock or whiting in much of the EU's waters in 2003, to save the fish from extinction. His warning follows a recommendation by the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES) for a moratorium on cod fishing in northern Europe's waters.

http://www.ices.dk/aboutus/pressrelease/codstocks.asp http://www.ices.dk/aboutus/pressrelease/codstocks.asp

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