Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest • Volume 8 • Number 1 • 14th January 2004

EU Agrees Cod Recovery Plan And 2004 Quotas

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In late 2003 the European Council of Fisheries Ministers adopted a long-term recovery plan for cod and 2004 quotas for cod, hake, whiting and other fish species. 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.

The aim of the plan was to allow severely depleted stocks to recover at rates ranging from 5 percent 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…

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 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".

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".

…while fishermen want less restrictions

Prior to the Council of Fisheries meeting, fishermen across Europe organised protests and demonstrations, blocking several ports in France. Pierre-George Dachicourt, president of France’s national fishers’ committee, said that "Europe’s fishing industry is going to collapse," stressing that the proposed quotas would "ruin the rich tradition of fishing all along Europe’s coasts". According to fisher associations, the jobs of 200,000 fishermen were at stake. 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 advise given by the scientists. In the end, no moratorium was set for cod in order to avoid the most adverse economic and social impacts. According to Fischler, "the next few years will not be easy ones for some fishermen… 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".

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.

To view the EU 2004 catch quotas, visit http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/pri/en/oj/dat/2003/l_344/l_34420031231en00010119.pdf

"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; "E.U. fishers protest protections for depleted fish stocks," AP, 11 December 2003.