Environmentalists unimpressed with EU fish stock reforms

Jul 13, 2011, 21:25 GMT

Brussels - The European Commission unveiled Wednesday reforms to prevent fish stocks from being depleted - including tradable quotas and a throwback ban - but environmental groups said they are not concrete enough to guarantee sustainability by 2015.

The EU's executive estimates that three out of four stocks in the oceans off the block's coasts are currently overfished - largely due to commercial vessels that are 'too large and too efficient.'

'Action is needed now to get all our fish stocks back into a healthy state to preserve them for present and future generations,' EU Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki said.

'If we get this reform right, fishermen and coastal communities will be better off in the long run. And all Europeans will have a wider choice of fresh fish, both wild and farm produced,' she added.

Damanaki is proposing to, among other things, allow large fishing operations to lease or trade their catch entitlements, outlaw the practice of throwing dead fish overboard, and end 'micro-management from Brussels,' with more decisions left to national authorities.

The commission's proposal also seeks to force fishermen to downsize their fleets - although no specific targets are given.

Greenpeace charged that 'a clear pathway to bring the fleet size in line with how much fish is left' was among the things missing in the commission's proposal, which WWF called 'disappointing.'

'Making sure fish stocks recover before they're wiped out by overfishing makes a lot of sense. Anyone will tell you that more fish means more business for fishermen and a healthier sea,' Greenpeace's EU fisheries policy adviser Saskia Richartz said in a statement.

'But right now it's hard to see how the EU wants to get there,' she added.

The commission's proposals need to be endorsed by EU governments and the European Parliament to become law, and may be amended significantly during the process.