Europe angles for a solution to dwindling fish stocks

"Cod stocks are the worst, but other whitefish are in a bad state, too," says Hans Larsen, a scientist with the International Council for Exploration of the Sea (ICES) in Copenhagen, which provides its estimates to the EU.

Nor has the European Union's fisheries policy achieved another of its aims - to protect jobs in the industry. Eighty-thousand fishermen have given up the sea over the past decade, leaving only 220,000 still fishing.

"Politicians should accept that they have made a complete mess of setting quotas in the past and hand over responsibility to an independent body that takes more notice of scientific advice," said Karl Wagner, head of the World Wildlife Fund's European Fisheries Campaign.

National governments, however, which set annual quotas in secret negotiations such as those under way this week, are reluctant to give up their powers to defend their fleets, which makes it hard for Fischler to reduce the number of boats fishing, another of his goals.

The EU provides funds to encourage the scrapping of fishing boats - to reduce an estimated overcapacity of 40 percent - but it also hands out money to modernize old boats and to construct new ones.

"It makes no sense to distribute money with one hand to scrap boats and to finance the construction of new ones with the other," Fischler said during the ministerial meeting opened Monday as he explained his plan to end subsidies that pay for greater catches.

Fishermen fear that will put their future in jeopardy, but they are more immediately worried about the EU's plan to cut catches radically now.

The European Commission, the EU's executive body, initially proposed reducing cod catches by 80 percent in some waters - already less than the total ban recommended by ICES - but has backed down to a 65 percent cut in the face of opposition from powerful fishing nations such as France and Spain.

Even that, complains Mr. Parres, would spell destruction for many fishing communities, since fishermen could not meet their overheads with such low catches.

"The proposal is unrealistic from a socioeconomic point of view," he argues.

"If fishing ended, whole regions would be turned into wastelands," Mr. Parres warns, because so many people in coastal areas depend on fishing fleets for their living.

Parres has suggested a less radical approach, challenging the European Union's fish estimates and seeking fewer cuts over a longer period to help stocks recover.

"Perhaps some fish are in difficulty, but to say that our resources are in danger is dishonest," he says. "Why not try to restore them over a 10-year period?"

Scientists, however, are insistent. "You can argue about the precision of our estimates, but the general conclusion about cod is extremely well founded," says Mr. Larsen. "And without drastic measures, you don't see recovery. Even with very harsh measures there is no guarantee that stocks will recover."

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