The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Fishing: EU-Norway talks take place against pressure to end ‘overfishing’
A key staging post for deciding UK North Sea fishing quotas for 2019 is likely to be reached in London today.
The latest round of whitefish quota talks between the European Union and Norway, following earlier discussions in Bergen, are drawing to a conclusion.
Whatever deal is struck still needs to be ratified at the December Fisheries Council in Brussels later this month.
Scottish White Fish Producers’ Association chief executive Mike Park said European Commission
“Much of the talk centres around the amount of Norway cod the EU can buy in”
(EC) proposals on the table were “mostly in line with the science” but with “some mitigation” on a recommended cut in the total allowable catch (TAC) for North Sea cod.
He added: “Much of the discussion centres around the amount of Norway cod the EU can buy in. That is normally in exchange for blue whiting, which is partly paid by the UK.”
Earlier this year the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (Ices), which advises the EC on the health of stocks, proposed a 47% cut to the cod TAC.
Ices also called for cuts to North Sea haddock, plaice, whiting and saithe quotas.
Potentially the most damaging proposal from Ices, a 70% cut in north-east Atlantic mackerel, worth £162 million to the industry in Scotland last year, was watered down substantially in a deal struck between the EU, Norway and Faroe at coastal state talks last week.
Even so, Scottish mackerel fishers face a 20% cut in quota next year.
Their latest catch limit is based on a long-term management strategy – jointly agreed by the coastal states last year – to cut mackerel TAC each year until 2020 to come fully into line with independent scientific advice.
Coastal states are committed to holding further consultations early next year to decide on further adjustments, if needed.
Scottish fishing chiefs expect that by 2021, following the end of the Brexit transition period, the UK will be joining the annual EU-Norway talks and multilateral coastal state negotiations as an independent voice.
According to industry sources, recent coastal state talks were “particularly difficult” in terms of how the UK’s fishing interests were treated – potentially settng the tone for an awkward December Fisheries Council, when fisheries ministers from all EU countries gather in Brussels to thrash out a deal on fishing rules for next year.
Today’s EU-Norway talks are taking place amid pressure from environmental groups for governments to crack down on “overfishing”.
Letters sent on behalf of organisations including Oceana, the Pew Charitable Trusts, Seas at Risk, Our Fish, ClientEarth and the Marine Conservation Society, have urged EU fisheries ministers to make sure the outcome of quota talks meets the requirements of the Common Fisheries Policy.
Scientific advice from Ices should be treated as a “red line” for the EU’s negotiating position, the letters said, adding: “TACs in excess of the advised limits will only result in continued overfishing”.