The Hindu : International : E.U. strikes deal on fishing

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Dec 23, 2004

International

International

E.U. strikes deal on fishing

BRUSSELS: European Union Ministers rejected proposals to declare huge swathes of ocean off-limits for trawlers and settled for less drastic alternatives on Wednesday in an attempt to protect such threatened fish as the once-common cod. The decision was a breakthrough for the fishing industry, which effectively watered down the proposals of the E.U.'s head office and won measures that would better protect the embattled E.U. fishing fleet. ``We welcome the fact that plans for closed areas have been withdrawn,'' said the British Fisheries Minister, Ben Bradshaw, who won praise from his country's fishermen. ``The news is good and Christmas has come early,'' said Jim Portus, a fishing official from the southwest of England. Environmentalists, however, were outraged. ``These so-called precautionary measures are just eyewash,'' said Greenpeace spokesman, Thilo Maack. ``These decisions will also contribute nothing next year toward the necessary and urgent protection of cod, plaice and sole.'' The World Wildlife Fund was equally critical. ``Avoiding taking action is not going to help anyone as it will jeopardise stock recovery. Ministers have yet again failed to take decisive action and failed to deliver,'' said WWF spokeswoman, Charlotte Mogensen.

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