Allister challenges Borg on 'cod by-catch fishery' proposal
13 December 2006
During Question Time in the European Parliament Jim Allister MEP raised with Fisheries Commissioner Borg tentative proposals emanating from the Commission about restricting cod fishing to what is termed a "cod by-catch fishery".
Though the Commissioner clearly did not want to expand much on the Commission's thinking, Mr Allister's question did flush into the public domain some relevant information, confirming that the Commission is thinking of only permitting cod to be caught as a by-catch, thus removing cod quotas and the right to fish for cod as a primary target.
The exchange in Parliament is set out below.
James Hugh Allister (NI). – In the Commission documentation published for the upcoming Fisheries Council, reference is made to the prospect of cod fishing being brought within the framework of a ‘cod bycatch fishery’. Could the Commissioner elaborate on this, and could he define what is meant by a ‘cod bycatch fishery’? What would this mean in practice? Will it involve a percentage limit, and will we still have the lunacy of valuable fish being discarded? Could the Commissioner please cast some light on what is intended by the phrase ‘cod bycatch fishery’?
Joe Borg, Member of the Commission. It is somewhat premature to give details because if one starts going into detail now before discussions with the stakeholders, it could be somewhat alarmist, as always happens in fisheries. Our intention is to heavily involve the regional advisory councils and to involve the stakeholders in how to manage fisheries in a way in which we try to tackle the cod problem effectively.
There is, as all of us know, a serious problem with regard to cod sustainability. In most, if not all, Community waters it is in a virtually depleted state. It is possible for it to be rescued, but we need to be inventive in this regard. The general idea behind a cod by-catch fishery is that, for as long as cod is not recovered, you do not target cod. Thus fishers would not target cod, but they would be allowed to land cod caught as a by-catch within certain limits. In that way you can provide an incentive for the diversification of fisheries into other fisheries so you would not thereby be targeting cod and at the same time you would reduce the unnecessary and very costly discarding of cod.
These are initial ideas which we need to ponder further and which we need to discuss primarily with the stakeholders, to see whether there is a way forward, or whether, as in many other respects, we end up concluding that the system as it operates is giving better results in certain respects. But I hope that we will manage to work out a system which will give much better results than those we have at the moment with regard to cod and to cod recovery in particular.
