The European Commission has unveiled major plans to reform the EU’s fishing industry and stop catches being wasted.
The proposal, due to take effect from 2013, would give fleets quota shares guaranteed for at least 15 years.
“Discards” will be phased out – the practice whereby up to half the catch of some fish is thrown back into the sea to avoid going above the quota.
The environmental group Oceana said the plan had “some positive” aspects but stronger measures were needed.
It called the plan “an incomplete work that does not provide the urgently needed strong solutions to restore European seas and ensure the long-term sustainability of fishing”.
The Common Fisheries Policy has been in effect for 28 years, but Maritime and Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki says it has been a failure.
“There is overfishing; we have 75% overfishing of our stocks and comparing ourselves to other countries we cannot be happy,” Ms Damanaki told BBC Radio Four’s Today programme.
“So we have to change. Let me put it straight – we cannot afford business as usual any more because the stocks are really collapsing.”
There will be hard bargaining by the European Parliament and EU member states’ governments before the new policy, external is adopted.
Restoring stocks
The Commission says that in the Mediterranean 82% of fish stocks are overfished, while in the Atlantic the figure is 63%.
Under the new scheme, boats are expected to land all the fish caught, and the whole catch would count against quotas. This would apply to species including mackerel, herring and tuna from the beginning of 2014.