Environmentalists Criticize New Fishing Rules

[Fishing Forum Admin]

Environmentalists Criticize New Fishing Rules
Radio Free Europe - Prague,Czech Republic

EU: Environmentalists Criticize New Fishing Rules
By Jan Jun

Environmentalists are up in arms following a European Union ruling last week that rejected a proposed ban on commercial deep-sea fishing in the North Sea. Fishermen welcomed the ruling, saying it would help them after years of economic hard times. But marine-life experts claim the EU yielded to pressure from the fishing lobby. They say the deal favors overfishing, which could threaten the global food supply. And they say that the decision may even jeopardize the livelihood of fishermen.

London, 29 December 2004 (RFE/RL) – Last week, the EU Council of Ministers rejected a European Commission proposal to toughen commercial fishing regulations, including a ban on all fishing in some areas.

British fishing fleets’ representatives are pleased, saying they have suffered enough in recent years. Doug Beveridge, assistant chief executive of the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organizations, told RFE/RL: “Part of the restrictions that have been imposed over the last two or three years has been a significant reduction in the number of vessels. There has been an increase in mesh size, and there has been a days-at-sea regime. They all point to a 60 percent reduction in mortality in cod, but the commission wanted to press ahead with further ill-considered and ill-founded restrictions.”

Beveridge added it was “unfortunate” that similar restrictions had also been proposed by the British Royal Commission on Pollution two weeks before the EU meeting. “They were looking at it from a slightly different perspective, and had an oversimplistic approach,” he said. “We did speak to the [European] Commission quite intensively about it. One of the problems with the Royal Commission report is that if it were imposed and applied the way they set it out, we would be back into that framework of the one-size-fits-all blunt approach from Brussels.”

The European Commission had originally sought deep restrictions in North Sea fishing, including a 60 percent cut in herring, 34 percent for cod, and 27 percent for mackerel, as well as a complete ban on fishing in some areas.

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[Old Smoothound]

I don't think it matters which report you read or from what angle you look at it. The long and the short of it is the same.

If we continue to rape the seas Irish or otherwise and do not allow fish stocks to recover to decent levels, we will continue to deplete our fish stocks.

Dosen't it make sense..... 30,000 tonnes netted.....20,000 tonnes bred and grown on= minus 10,000 tonnes!
You would not find this happening in farming animals or other food. If a farmer has a breeding stock of 100 sheep he rears another 400 lambs from them then harvests 450 his breeding stock is down to 50 he than breeds another 200 lambs harvests 225 he now has 25 and so on. This is what we are doing with our fish stocks...eventually they will run out and its only a matter of time.

When oh when will we ever learn. If you want sutainable resources you need to invest in them, that is, allow them to recover and then harvest them. Not the other way around.

We need to "farm" our seas not rape them and then "cry wolf" when they are all gone!

For Gods sake lets have a bit of sense...kill the quotas, mothball some of the larger fleets and let the fish recover.

Keep the other EU countries away from our fish breeding areas for 3-5 years and then harvest them but leave enough to sustain our needs.

Hope you are reading this Mr Bradshaw

[DownSouth]

I'd like to see a 200 mile exclusion zone re-introduced and within that zone only UK vessels on strict quotas and number of days at sea.

What are the knock on effects to the industry? - short-term, an increase in the cost of fish and maybe a small reduction in our fleet. The long-term, a sea with a good stock and variety of fish that will sustain our nations needs.

I don't care if the Spanish have a voracious appetite for fish - tough, adapt. I don't care if the Japanese have a huge demand for fish, the same, go fish the Pacific or adapt. And the Scandinavian countries can do the same. All in all, this government has sold out. Don't get me wrong, so would have the Tories and Lib Dems. What it does indicate is that our society still hasn't learned any lessons, we still believe 'greed is good'. F**k you, I'm alright Jack...

Sad, very sad