Contrasting fish views.

EU Fish News, the website dedicated to reports on the fishing industry, has been at sharp odds within itself recently, carrying views that are directly opposed to each other. On one hand, EU Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki said at a conference in Lisbon that if  there is no end to a damaging ‘vicious circle’ hitting fish stocks, there will only be a handful of sustainable species left by 2022. She laid into the current fishing industry with vigour, saying, ‘We have fished too much. We have thrown away fish we don’t want to land or for which we don’t have quotas. And we have used taxpayer’s money to build up bigger and bigger vessels. The result is that today seventy-five percent of our stocks are over-fished.’ This, she claimed, would lead to ‘economic disaster for our fishing industry, particularly small-scale fishermen, who cannot easily move to other waters. We must turn this around and hinge our actions on sustainability – and sustainability only.’

In the same issue, the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations (NFFO) was reported as protesting furiously against cuts in permitted days-at-sea. Its representatives told UK Fisheries Minister Richard Benyon that winning a halt to these cuts must be an ‘absolute priority’ for the UK at the forthcoming December Council. Their statement continued, ‘All parts of the NFFO back the priority given to halting the effort cuts’ and claimed that the Cod Plan would force vessels ‘to shift into small-mesh fisheries and into targeting shoaling species, including cod, because they take less time at sea to catch.’  This sounds like a nasty threat. Maria Damanaki may have quite a fight on her hands.