EU countries agree on catches in the North Sea
Created: 12/14/2021 Updated: 12/14/2021, 11:45 AM
A fishing cutter has cast its nets on the North Sea between List (Schleswig-Holstein) and the Danish island of Römö.
© Carsten Rehder / dpa / archive image
German North Sea fishermen will be allowed to catch fewer plaice and saithe in the future.
Compared to last year, the catches for plaice will drop by 10 percent to 4539 tons and for saithe by 25 percent to 4307 tons for the year 2022, as the Federal Ministry of Agriculture announced on Tuesday after negotiations at EU level.
In return, significantly more herring can be fished in the future, the total amount allowed increases to 41.
Brussels - 155 tons, an increase of 22 percent.
The background to this is that it was decided in October that herring must be spared in the western Baltic Sea.
The new Federal Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir (Greens) was satisfied and spoke of a balanced compromise.
However, with a view to cod in the North Sea, he would have wished for “a somewhat more ambitious approach”, as he announced.
Environmentalists are also particularly critical of this stock.
"All signs point to collapse," announced 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 only fell by two percent.
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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.
dpa