[full article at: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/World/Europe/2000-12/fish141200.shtml Europe EU debates big cuts in fish catches 14 December 2000 European Union fisheries ministers were today debating plans to cut catch quotas by up to 74 per cent next year to prevent stocks from being fished into commercial extinction. Ministers from the 15 nations meet every December to fix the catch limits and usually try to talk up quotas for their fishermen, but this year the EU's head office warned of disastrous consequences unless governments accept stringent cuts. "If no action is taken, the stocks already at biological risk are likely to collapse," the European Commission said in a statement ahead of the talks. For the most threatened species, the Commission has proposed lowering hake quotas by 74 percent in waters from the Bay of Biscay to the mouth of the Baltic Sea; reducing cod catches off western Scotland by up to 56 percent; and halving the anchovy catch in the Atlantic waters off Spain and Portugal. Substantial cuts are also recommended for monkfish, haddock and whiting. EU officials acknowledged the proposed cuts would have a severe impact on fishing communities, but said there was no other choice. "There's no way round it: to have a fishing industry we need fish ... stocks need to be rebuilt," Franz Fischler, the EU fisheries commissioner said when the Commission announced its proposed cuts this month. In the North Sea, where the quota cuts are linked to an EU agreement with Norway, the total cod catch is set to fall from 81,000 tons this year to 48,600 tons in 2001. Scientists believe North Sea cod is one of the species under greatest threat. They say drastic protection measures are needed to prevent fishing communities there from facing a similar fate to those on Canada's Atlantic seaboard, where the government imposed a moratorium on fishing in the early 1990s because of depleted stocks, throwing thousands out of work.
