Ocean Sentry
A new Brussels position paper highlighted severe problems with fisheries and urged a complete rethink of a key European Union policy.
EU officials have been forced to admit that, despite the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), 88 per cent of European fish stocks are over-fished, compared to 25 per cent elsewhere in the world.
EU officials have been forced to admit that, despite the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), 88 per cent of European fish stocks are over-fished, compared to 25 per cent elsewhere in the world.
Almost a third – 30 per cent – of managed fisheries are “outside safe biological limits, they cannot reproduce at normal because the parenting population is too depleted”, said the paper.
“Yet in many fisheries we are fishing two or three more times more than what fish stocks can sustain.”
Joe Borg, the European fisheries commissioner, said: “We are questioning even the fundamentals of the current policy. We are not just looking for another reform – it is time to design a modern, simple and sustainable system for managing fisheries in the EU.”
The commission has blamed fishing fleets for over-fishing and national governments for failing to enforce catch quota limits agreed annually under the CFP.
(From telegraph.co.uk)
