Massive cuts on horizon as fish stocks take a dive

Date: 10/12/1998

By Simon Taylor

EU FISHERIES ministers will have to make tough decisions on major cuts in fishing catches next week, following warnings from scientists that stocks off the west coast of the UK and Ireland are close to exhaustion.

Supplies of the once plentiful whitefish coley are so low off the west coast of Scotland that the European Commission has recommended slashing next year's catch by 40&percent; - the strongest action the institution can take apart from recommending a total halt to fishing for a particular species.

Fisheries officials say that although ministers will attempt to scale back some of the proposed cuts, they will accept that stocks are severely depleted and that the fishing industry could face a major crisis in years to come if action is not taken to stop numbers declining even further.

“The Commission has ratcheted up its precautionary approach on a number of stocks, but ministers have accepted the need for this,” said one.

In its annual proposals for new limits on exactly how many fish can be caught in the coming year, the Commission has taken a very cautious approach, recommending large cuts in catches to prevent overfishing.

Although the situation has improved in some parts of the North Sea, thanks to strong action to protect certain species, it has deteriorated in the Atlantic, the English Channel and the Irish Sea because vessels are taking too many of the available fish, leaving too few to regenerate stocks.

This has prompted the Commission to call for large cuts in white fish catches including a 40&percent; reduction in coley, 30&percent; in haddock and 25-30&percent; in whiting.

Not surprisingly, the move has dismayed the region's fishing crews, who are used to massive cuts being proposed by the Commission and scaled back by ministers.

Hamish Morrison, chief executive of the Scottish Fishermen's Federation, described the Commission's proposed reductions in west coast catches as “disastrous”, although he acknowledged that stocks were in bad shape.