As per the press communiqué the EU Commission’s proposal for deep-sea TACs for 2011-2012 was approved from all the agencies, but environmentalists immediately condemned it for being far from enough. The press release mentioned that the Commission admit there were no increases in Total Allowable Catches (TACs) in EU waters and the North-East Atlantic “until positive trends in the abundance of deep-sea stocks have been properly identified”, while some important TACs, questioned by both scientists and environmentalists, will indeed be kept the same as in 2010.
Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki said that it is very difficult to assess the exact stock of the deep sea species because they are particularly vulnerable to fishing activity. Therefore, it is an urgent need to ensure not to fish more then what has been done and for this better knowledge of the real biological conditions is essential. She informed that no TACs had been reduced by more than 15 percent, “where necessary applied over the two-year period”.
The proposal was still condemned by the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition (DSCC), an international alliance of more than 60 organizations, who said that the allowances for deep-sea bottom fishing “will lead to continued depletion and destruction of Northeast Atlantic fish stocks”, adding that the practice “should be abandoned”.
The DSCC has repeatedly called on the Commission to recommend a temporary moratorium on deep-sea bottom fishing in the North Atlantic, until scientists have sufficient understanding of the biology of deep-sea fish stocks and ecosystems to determine what constitutes sustainable levels of fishing.
