Kvóty EU pro rybolov jsou špatnou zprávou pro tresky

22.12.2005
BRUSEL [WWF International]
Autor: Charlotte Mogensen, tel: 003 227 438 807

WWF warns that fish stocks are at risk of collapse after ministers at a EU Fisheries Council meeting have yet again ignored dire warnings from marine scientists to set quotas for cod and other fish above sustainable levels of fishing.

Despite the last several years of scientific advice recommending zero catch for cod, the EU Fisheries Council has once again given a green light to fishing cod in the North Sea. Not only has the quota for the last three years in total been above 81,000 tonnes, but the 2006 quotas for other fish stocks with significant accidental catches of cod have also increased compared to last year.

According to the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), North Sea cod suffers reduced reproductive capacity and is being harvested unsustainably. Zero catch is therefore recommended to avoid further depletion of the stock.

“It makes no sense to allow fishing on a stock which has collapsed,” said Charlotte Mogensen, Fisheries Policy Officer at WWF's European Policy Office. “Now it is clear that cod has no chance of recovering and this is just the first of many fish stocks that we are losing because of the mismanagement of European fisheries.”

With 80 per cent of commercial fish species in EU waters now below safe biological limits or classified as being at risk of overfishing, the EU must listen and respond to ICES advice.

“If the EU continues this madness of setting quotas above what the species can support, other fish stocks will follow the same route to collapse as cod in the North Sea," added Mogensen.

Other populations at risk of collapse include spurdog, skates and rays in the North Sea, and leafscale gulper sharks and Portuguese dogfish.

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