Posted on December, 20 2012

Brussels, Belgium, 20 December 2012 — In reaction to the Fisheries Council agreement on 2013 fishing opportunities for the Atlantic and North Sea fish stocks, Roberto Ferrigno, Common Fisheries Policy Project Coordinator, WWF European Policy Office of WWF said:

"Despite the best available scientific advice, EU Fisheries Ministers have not taken the steps needed to tackle overfishing in the North Sea and have once again demonstrated that short-term interests of their fisheries sector prevail over the safeguarding of fish stocks on which the sector relies. By giving with one hand, they have seemingly taken away with the other. Although there were reductions in quotas for some fish stocks, the political agreement is in many cases above scientific advice."

“As revealed by WWF’s Legalised Overfishing[1] analysis launched last week, fisheries ministers are not taking scientific advice into account in their decision-making. As a result every year, just before Christmas, it’s a ‘fisheries frenzy’ where ministers spend days arguing about how much fish can be caught. WWF wants to see this manner of dealing with such a precious resource brought to an end. It is very damaging way to manage Europe's fish stocks. We look towards a positive first step by taken by the European Parliament's Fisheries Committee last Tuesday in implementing multi-annual management plans, to bring long-term fisheries management into effect" said Roberto Ferrigno.
 

Source of the article