Fishing leaders in Scotland have expressed delight after the European Commission ditched a controversial plan to cut some fish quotas automatically.
The proposal to chop catch limits by a quarter or 15% where there was a lack of scientific data on fish stocks had provoked fury with many member states voicing concerns.
Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki told the European Agriculture and Fisheries Council meeting in Luxembourg she was scrapping the idea.
Where issues remain with data stocks, quotas will now be decided on case-by-case basis.
Scottish Fishermen’s Federation chief executive Bertie Armstrong was delighted.
He added: “This is extremely good news. The application of an automatic reduction of fishing opportunities on the grounds of failure by some member states to provide accurate and reliable data was a disproportionate way to deal with this.We have been working hand-in-hand with the UK Government on This”.
UK Fisheries Minister Richard Benyon was pleased at some realism being brought to the decision- making progress. He added: ” Just because the data on a stock doesn’t give the full picture,that doesn’t mean slashing the amount which you are allowed to catch by a quarter is the right response”.
My Benyon said the UK backed the commission’s ambitions to secure fish stocks for the long term but it could not support ideas that had no basis in science and which could risk increasing discards from otherwise healthy fish stocks.
Meanwhile, Ireland has joined the battle to secure a better deal over mackerel in the north-east Atlantic.
It is to support moves by the EU and Norway to resolve a bitter row with Iceland and the Faroe Islands after they awarded themselves big increases in their mackerel catches in a fishing ground that is supposedly managed jointly. Mr Benyon and Scottish Fisheries Minister Richard Lochhead, recruited Irish Fisheries Minister Simon Coveney at the meeting.
Both the UK and Ireland agree that to maintain healthy stocks and the livelihoods of fishermen, Iceland and Faroe should reduce quotas or face sanctions.
Mr Benyon said that if Iceland and Faroe continue to fish mackerel at current levels then the stock could be in danger by 2014. He added: “We cannot allow that to happen. Mackerel is vitally important to the Scottish fishing fleet in particular, and it’s not right that they should lose out when they have played by the rules. We had a very constructive meeting with the Irish delegation, who feel the same way as we do that if Iceland and the Faroes Islands don’t stop taking more than their fair share then the sanctions proposed by the commission must be considered as soon as possible”.
Talks in London involving negotiators from Norway, Iceland, Faroe and the EU aimed at resolving the mackerel row are likely to resume on Wednesday October 26. There appears a likelihood of Iceland possibly backing down. Faroe is willing to continue talking, but a deal seems unlikely.
Mr Armstrong aid: ” The bizarrely bad behaviour of Iceland and Faroes, who actually set themselves a quota that could not possibly have been taken by their own fleet, requiring a foreign invasion of their waters–must not be rewarded by capitulation”.
