– It was just as well, says Erik Bonde Pedersen, Chairman of the Board of TripleNine, – for luckily we have rejoiced in a good sand eel season, almost like the good old days before the worry industry took hold.
Fishing continued until 1 August, when it had to stop, and as a result all vessels fished their full quota.
Only Hvide Sande vessels took part in the sprat fishing in August. The fishing was good with very low secondary catches.
Bureaucracy reason for fishing stop
– Norway spout fishing started with a few fish last August and developed into one of the best for many years, says Erik Bonde Pedersen. – These catches also proved very clean, but nonetheless a stop was introduced after just 18,300 tons had been fished. The reason was bureaucratic issues in connection with the blue whiting secondary catch quota.
– Again, we saw that fishing can be stopped within 48 hours, while it may take 148 days to get it restarted, says the Chairman.
Chaos avoided
– We hear that the implementation of the Lisbon Treaty in the EU fishing policy can only make things worse. It is therefore more important than ever to be ahead of the EU lobbying and influence the various RAC’s to avoid the worst blunders, says Erik Bonde Pedersen. – The task that our representatives from the organisations here are undertaking is not an enviable one and in my opinion, they deserve praise for their efforts to have the introduction of the new technical rules in the TAC quota regulation deferred until 2011.
– If they had been introduced from the start of this year, chaos would have resulted, says Erik Bonde Pedersen. – However, our organisation representatives fortunately managed to convince the Minister and the EU Commission that the proposal was ill-considered and carelessly drafted.
– So now we simply have to hope for a year without an ocean of new rules and regulations, concludes the Chairman of the Board of TripleNine.
