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Danes ready to flout new fisheries rules
Danish fishermen are becoming increasingly militant
over recent restrictions in days at sea. (Photo: Notat)
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS
5th February 2003
Cracks are beginning to show already in an emergency cod recovery plan decided by EU fisheries ministers in December, with up to one third of Denmark's 1500 fishing vessels prepared to flout harsh restrictions in days at sea.
A spokesman for the Danish Fishermen's Association (DFA) told the EUobserver that fishermen on the west coast of Denmark had been angered by the agreement which allows them to go to sea for only 13 days out of every month. I believe that the 500 vessels that are dependent on cod fisheries are prepared to break the new rules, he said. "Fishermen think the rules are too bureaucratic and not possible in the real world."
Unwelcome move
Fisheries ministers took the unpopular decision in December to impose days at sea restrictions and 45% cuts in cod quotas in the North Sea in attempt to prevent dwindling stocks from extinction. The emergency measures, which came into force on 1 February, will apply until July when a long term strategy should be ready to take over.
But Danish fishermen argue that the stocks in their fishing grounds are healthy and that the cutbacks in fishing days are unreasonably severe. While stopping short of instigating collective action, the DFA has said it understands if fishermen wish to go ahead with defying the new rules. Fishermen who are caught may face hefty fines from the Danish Government.
Commission backtracks
The news comes just as the European Commission has signalled it may be willing to show more flexibility over the strict short term measures. Fisheries leaders emerged from intense talks with high level Commission officials on Tuesday with the news that Brussels would be ready to relax fisheries cutbacks by the end of February.
Mike Park, chairman of the Scottish White Fish Producers Association, said that the Commission now understood the operational difficulties of recent days at seas restrictions and had listened to the industry’s fears about implications for safety at sea.
"There was an acknowledgement that the current scheme is not very fair and is to a degree disproportionate," he said.
Long term goals crucial
But fisheries leaders are not prepared to lower their guard until final decisions are taken by the Commission over its definitive long term strategy for cod recovery. The Commission must submit its final proposal by 15 February for it to be finally approved by fisheries ministers in March.
A view is emerging from within Europe’s fisheries sector which favours a more "permissive" management of European fishing grounds, where annual targets would be set while giving national fleets the flexibility to work out the best way to achieve them.
"We are trying to persuade the Commission that the one-size-fits-all cod recovery plan it has been trying to promote for the last few years has no future," said Chief Executive of the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation, Hamish Morrison. But he indicated that Scottish fishermen, who also reacted with outrage to December’s cutbacks, are not ready to join the initiative of their Danish counterparts.
The industry has not come to that point yet, he said. "We at least need the moral authority of a carefully thought out conservation scheme. The idea that we are reluctant conservationists is untrue."
Written by Nicola Smith
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