Fisheries: EU countries agree on catches in the North Sea

German North Sea fishermen will be allowed to catch fewer plaice and saithe in the future. Compared to last year, the quantities for plaice will drop by 10 percent to 4539 tons and for saithe by 25 percent to 4307 tons for 2022, as the Federal Ministry of Agriculture announced on Tuesday.

Significantly more herring can be fished for this: The total amount allowed increases to 41 155 tonnes, an increase of 22 percent. The background to this is a decision from October according to which the herring in the western Baltic Sea must be spared.

Considered a positive sign

The Federation for Environment and Nature Conservation (BUND) sees this as a positive sign, because this Baltic Sea population migrates and mixes north of Denmark with its conspecifics from the North Sea. There the catch has now been drastically reduced and increased in the North Sea. “Now the tide seems to be turning, mainly due to pressure from Germany,” announced the organization. The new Federal Agriculture Minister, Cem Özdemir, was also satisfied and spoke of a balanced compromise. With a view to cod in the North Sea, he would have wished for “a somewhat more ambitious approach,” said the Green politician.

Environmentalists are also particularly critical of this stock. “All signs point to collapse,” criticized the WWF. More fish is still being fished than is recommended by scientists. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, the permitted North Sea catch for the EU countries fell by two percent.

Negotiations traditionally difficult

The background to the discussions is that a balance has to be found in how many animals can be caught each year without endangering the stocks. The negotiations on catch quotas have traditionally been difficult. In addition to the North Sea, parts of the Atlantic, the Mediterranean and the Black Sea were also on the agenda. The meeting of the EU ministers who negotiate the fishing opportunities had officially started on Sunday. Negotiations took place on Tuesday night.

The EU states set the total allowable catches for certain waters every year. On this basis, the respective national catches are allocated to the individual countries by means of fixed distribution keys. The basis of the negotiations is a submission from the EU Commission, which is primarily based on scientific recommendations. Many fish stocks are in a rather poor condition.

Some catches unchanged

The catches for German fishermen for haddock, arctic cod and black halibut in Greenland will remain almost unchanged in the coming year. Almost 10 percent less mackerel, on the other hand, can be caught in the north-east Atlantic. The WWF has long been calling for better monitoring of whether fishermen throw catches back into the sea illegally, which, according to environmental organizations, is sometimes common practice. The BUND also demands that all fishing activities and fishing methods must be subjected to an environmental assessment.

An agreement on catches for stocks shared by the UK and the EU is still pending. The additional talks have been necessary since Brexit. The Slovenian Presidency was optimistic about reaching an agreement early next week. European Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevicius expressed his satisfaction that most of the stocks are fished on the basis of the scientific recommendations.

Rupert Howes, head of the MSC organization, which issues a seal for sustainable fisheries, also emphasizes the importance of decent management of the stocks and criticizes the fact that several fish stocks are fished more than recommended by researchers. But there is improvement: “In 2005, only 25 percent of European stocks were fished sustainably, today it is almost 60 percent.”