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CFP 'pantomime farce' continues as cod quota is raised again

Posted by Willie on 19 December 2008.

In many ways the bluster from Europe's fisheries ministers the week before Christmas is as predictable as a pantomime script, if only it were meant to be funny! They all trumpet a 'fair deal' and talk about 'striking a balance', and most hilariously, 'respecting the science'. But in reality short-term political expediency continues to trump scientific reality. Today the EU announced its fishing quotas for 2009, as usual doing their best to ignore their own scientists' recommendations. Instead they agreed to increase quotas for endangered North Sea cod by 30 per cent, after the scientists had recommended that to be safe they shouldn't be catching any.

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oceans, EU, cod, ICES, common fisheries policy, discards
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It's official: EU fishing policy is crazy

Posted by jossc on 14 August 2008.

Norwegian coastguard video of the Shetland trawler Prolific dumping its catch in the North Sea

The crew of the Prolific discarding their catch

So at last the sheer waste involved in modern trawling has been captured on camera. Last week a Norwegian coastguard cutter filmed the crew of a Shetland trawler, the Prolific, openly dumping over 5,000 kg of cod and other dead white fish in UK waters. Now this footage is rightly causing a wave of revulsion in the media at the scale of unnecessary waste at a time of rapidly rising food prices and, ironically, when our own Prime Minister is telling us not to waste food.

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Tags:
marine reserves, EU, trawling, ICES, common fisheries policy, prolific
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Greenpeace ship sails to save North Sea cod

30 Apr 2007

The Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise will sail today from Norway on a mission to save cod from being pushed towards extinction in the North Sea.

During the voyage, which will include waters off the east of Scotland, Greenpeace campaigners will be confronting trawlers from Scotland and encouraging them to stop fishing for cod.

The campaigners fear that, if fishing for cod is allowed to continue, then cod will be wiped out in the North Sea. They are calling not only for a halt to cod fishing, but also for large areas of the North Sea to become protected as "marine reserves".

North Sea cod has been classified as a "threatened and declining species" since 2002. Scientists say that a cod stock in the North Sea of 150,000 tonnes is the bare minimum required, yet stocks are currently estimated at under 70,000 tonnes.

The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), the official scientific advisory body to the European Union, has described North Sea cod as being "outside safe biological limits". They have repeatedly called for a complete ban on cod fishing in the North Sea every year since 2001, yet have been ignored by politicians and the fishing industry.

Willie Mackenzie, Greenpeace campaigner onboard the Arctic Sunrise, said: "We're in the North Sea to save the cod from extinction, and a huge part of the Scottish fishing fleet from collapsing.

"If fishing for cod in the North Sea is allowed to continue, North Sea cod will be wiped out.

"In the very near future, the last cod will be taken from the plundered waters of the North Sea. This would be bad news for the oceans, and devastating for the fishing industry."

Greenpeace is calling on the UK Environment Minister, David Miliband, to deliver a network of marine reserves in the proposed UK Marine Bill and also through the EU Marine Strategy Directive

For more information, contact the Greenpeace press office on 020 7865 8255.

A media briefing on North Sea cod is available here.

Tags: oceans, marine reserves, cod, north sea, arctic sunrise, scotland, overfishing, ships, press releases, ICES