The new proposed technical regulations on fishing nets are opposed by several countries, including Spain. (Photo: Stock File)

Ministers analyse controversial conservation measures

EUROPEAN UNION
Friday, November 20, 2009, 02:10 (GMT + 9)

The European Union (EU) Council of Agriculture and Fishing will try to reach an agreement on a European Commission (EC) bill to increase fishing-net-mesh and minimum-catch sizes. These measures are some of the new norms proposed to preserve seafood resources in the Community scope and boost the protection of marine organisms.

The EU fisheries ministers will begin to negotiate the norm proposed by Brussels this Friday, which would force fishers to change their fishing nets.

The main aim of the proposal is to reduce undesired catch discards.

Spain, among other countries, rejects this initiative; it contends the sector needs more time before assuming the high economic cost behind the changes, EFE reports.

The Spanish government hopes that the EC “softens” its proposal. It warns that the sector needs fewer strict conditions, “otherwise it will resort to illegality.”

In case the measure is approved, affected Spanish fishers would be those that work in the Cantabrian Sea, the coasts of Galicia and the Gulf of Cadiz, and in the non-Spanish waters of the Bay of Biscay and Gran Sol.

In terms of nets, Spain does not accept adjustments in trawling gear and in fixed fishing nets [like gillnets], as modifications of 50 or 60 millimetres, in some cases, are already being bandied about.

In addition, they criticise some of the proposals related to the requirements of minimum landing sizes, for example, the EC’s pretension to increase anchovy catch size in the gulf of Cadiz by 10 cm to 12 cm.

Meanwhile, the government of Sweden hopes that an agreement is reached in the Council, although it admitted that it will be “difficult” because there is “no manoeuvrable margin,” indicated Swedish diplomatic sources.

The European ministers will also reach an agreement on fishing opportunities in the Black Sea for 2010, and will exchange opinions on the annual fishing talks between the EU and Norway.

By Analia Murias
editorial@fis.com
www.fis.com