MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

EU closer to an understanding on catches

The new hake, Norway lobster and sole recovery plan, submitted by the European Commission on Thursday January 15 states that hake vessels operating in Iberian waters will have to reduce their fishing days by 10% annually over a five year period, beginning 2005.

beginning 2005. The EC which should be passed by the end of this year differs from the plan presented by the EU Fisheries Commissioner, Franz Fischler in 2003. This plan means a 50% reduction in the number of hake, Norway lobster and monkfish fishing days in the Cantabrian Sea, Portugal and the Gulf of Cadiz.

According to analysts Mr. Fischler modified his proposal, "to make it more digestible for the sector". The most substantial change is that Brussels no longer demands a drastic cut in fishing days and is willing to give the sector time to adjust to a gradual reduction.

Strangely enough a proposal agreed days earlier by the Galician Government and most of the fisheries sector involved a 10% reduction in fishing days which represents a one month less activity per year for Galician trawlers and long-liners. In a statement to the press, Ernesto Penas, chief of the European Commission's General Directorate of Fisheries Department, said that the EU plans to "gradually reduce activity by 10% each year," adding that the plan could be modified should stocks recover.

As far as the Norway lobster recovery plan for the fishing grounds surrounding the Iberian Peninsula, the EC is proposing the creation of ban areas in Cantabria, Asturias, the Galician Rías Baixas, the south of Lisbon and the Gulf of Cadiz, where bottom trawling and creels would be banned. However European authorities have still to decide on a monkfish recovery plan, but will continue the sole recovery plan in the English Channel and the Bay of Biscay. They have also announced similar measures for cod and plaice in the Celtic sea, marlin in Irish waters and plaice in the North Sea. (FIS/MP).-