Ocean Sentry
(Frompressandjournal.co.uk) Marine conservation group Oceana has outlined concerns about further European Union subsidies to fishermen, warning they could do more harm to under-pressure fish stocks.
EU fisheries ministers are expected to agree a package of measures on Tuesday to help the fishing sector to survive crippling fuel costs.
Oceana economist Anne Schroeer said: “Fuel subsidies and other operational subsidies do nothing to treat the underlying problem of chronic overcapacity of the EU fleet and instead directly contribute to further overfishing.
“A large amount of money has been spent on the fisheries sector over the past few years and yet overcapacity and overfishing persist, the condition of the marine environment continues to deteriorate and the fisheries sector is still in crisis.”
Oceana is particularly concerned about proposals for partial decommissioning schemes, with the potential for 25% of the fishing capacity being transferred to new vessels.
The group said: “This would discretely reintroduce so-called harmful subsidies for vessel construction, which were rightly phased out during the Common Fisheries Policy reform in 2002.”
