Capt Jimmy Elliott
01-29-2013, 08:26 PM
Here's the details
PARIS — The European Union must push harder to end a three-year deadlock
> over mackerel quotas with Iceland and the Faroe Islands, a key British
> official said Monday, in order to resolve a dispute that has led to
> warnings that the fish is being dangerously overexploited.
>
> “There have been 15 rounds of negotiation without success over the last
> three or four years,” said Richard Lochhead, the fisheries secretary for
> Scotland. “I’m suggesting a fresh impetus from someone outside the E.U.,”
> perhaps under the auspices of the United Nations, he said.
>
> But Europe should also be prepared to punish the two countries, including
> by restricting access to its market, if a deal cannot be reached, he said.
>
> “How can the European Union, acting on behalf of 500 million people, find
> itself unable or unwilling to take strong action against an overfishing
> nation, in this case the Faroe Islands, with 50,000 people, or Iceland,
> with 300,000?” Mr. Lochhead said.
>
> The mackerel fishery was once heralded as one of the best managed in
> Europe, with environmental organizations recommending that shoppers choose
> the fish as a “sustainable” option. But the management regime came
> unhinged in 2010, when mackerel suddenly started appearing in Icelandic
> waters in commercial quantities for the first time.
>
> Before then, E.U. members, along with Norway, had set quotas for the fish
> among themselves. Iceland and the Faroe Islands sought to break into the
> club, but the terms they demanded were unacceptable to the existing
> members, since it would subtract from their own share of the catch. The
> two countries simply set their own quotas, with the result that the catch
> has exceeded the level recommended by scientists every year since.
>
> This year the European Union and Norway have declared they will take about
> 90 percent of the catch level that scientists say is sustainable; Iceland
> and the Faroes have served notice that they will not settle for the
> remaining 10 percent. It is a certainty that the catch will again exceed
> the recommended level.
>
> Britain has 52 percent of the E.U. quota, and Scotland accounts for more
> than 60 percent of that.
>
> The longer the dispute runs, the more potential damage to the stock and to
> the carefully groomed image of mackerel as sustainable; the same
> environmental organizations that once praised the fishery are now
> condemning it. The Marine Conservation Society, a British nongovernmental
> organization, last week removed the mackerel from its “fish to eat” list,
> and the Marine Stewardship Council, which certifies seafood businesses to
> ensure they are operate according to environmentally sound principles, has
> put the mackerel on suspension.
>
> Sigurgeir Thorgeirsson, the Icelandic government’s chief fisheries
> negotiator, said European officials appeared unable to grasp that the
> facts in the water had changed.
>
> Iceland gets about 9 percent of its gross domestic product from the
> fishing industry, Mr. Thorgeirsson noted, and the presence of the mackerel
> in Icelandic waters means other species on which the country depends are
> being crowded out.
>
> It is “a mackerel invasion,” Mr. Thorgeirsson said. “These fish aren’t
> tourists. They’re not coming to our waters just to look around. They’re
> coming to feed.”
>
> Scientists are not even certain why the mackerel have changed their
> migration pattern. Some believe climate change may play a role, but there
> have also been indications that the stock might have actually grown.
>
> Ian Gatt, of the Scottish Pelagic Fishermen’s Association, said that the
> observations of fishermen supported the latter view, and that there was
> hope that a new stock assessment, for which the results will be available
> in September, would prove it. Such an outcome might lead scientists to
> raise their estimate of the size of the sustainable catch, even if
> countries remained divided over how to share it.
>
> For now, it appears that there is little hope of a breakthrough. Iceland
> is seeking somewhere approaching 15 percent of the catch, about double
> what it is being offered. Fisheries officials in several countries said
> there were not even plans for any formal negotiations. Noting Mr. Lochhead’s
> proposals Monday, Oliver Drewes, a spokesman for Maria Damanaki, the
> European commissioner for fisheries, said after a ministerial meeting that
> “all options are on the table at this stage.”
>
>
Lets go
Capt Jimmy Elliott:cool:
PARIS — The European Union must push harder to end a three-year deadlock
> over mackerel quotas with Iceland and the Faroe Islands, a key British
> official said Monday, in order to resolve a dispute that has led to
> warnings that the fish is being dangerously overexploited.
>
> “There have been 15 rounds of negotiation without success over the last
> three or four years,” said Richard Lochhead, the fisheries secretary for
> Scotland. “I’m suggesting a fresh impetus from someone outside the E.U.,”
> perhaps under the auspices of the United Nations, he said.
>
> But Europe should also be prepared to punish the two countries, including
> by restricting access to its market, if a deal cannot be reached, he said.
>
> “How can the European Union, acting on behalf of 500 million people, find
> itself unable or unwilling to take strong action against an overfishing
> nation, in this case the Faroe Islands, with 50,000 people, or Iceland,
> with 300,000?” Mr. Lochhead said.
>
> The mackerel fishery was once heralded as one of the best managed in
> Europe, with environmental organizations recommending that shoppers choose
> the fish as a “sustainable” option. But the management regime came
> unhinged in 2010, when mackerel suddenly started appearing in Icelandic
> waters in commercial quantities for the first time.
>
> Before then, E.U. members, along with Norway, had set quotas for the fish
> among themselves. Iceland and the Faroe Islands sought to break into the
> club, but the terms they demanded were unacceptable to the existing
> members, since it would subtract from their own share of the catch. The
> two countries simply set their own quotas, with the result that the catch
> has exceeded the level recommended by scientists every year since.
>
> This year the European Union and Norway have declared they will take about
> 90 percent of the catch level that scientists say is sustainable; Iceland
> and the Faroes have served notice that they will not settle for the
> remaining 10 percent. It is a certainty that the catch will again exceed
> the recommended level.
>
> Britain has 52 percent of the E.U. quota, and Scotland accounts for more
> than 60 percent of that.
>
> The longer the dispute runs, the more potential damage to the stock and to
> the carefully groomed image of mackerel as sustainable; the same
> environmental organizations that once praised the fishery are now
> condemning it. The Marine Conservation Society, a British nongovernmental
> organization, last week removed the mackerel from its “fish to eat” list,
> and the Marine Stewardship Council, which certifies seafood businesses to
> ensure they are operate according to environmentally sound principles, has
> put the mackerel on suspension.
>
> Sigurgeir Thorgeirsson, the Icelandic government’s chief fisheries
> negotiator, said European officials appeared unable to grasp that the
> facts in the water had changed.
>
> Iceland gets about 9 percent of its gross domestic product from the
> fishing industry, Mr. Thorgeirsson noted, and the presence of the mackerel
> in Icelandic waters means other species on which the country depends are
> being crowded out.
>
> It is “a mackerel invasion,” Mr. Thorgeirsson said. “These fish aren’t
> tourists. They’re not coming to our waters just to look around. They’re
> coming to feed.”
>
> Scientists are not even certain why the mackerel have changed their
> migration pattern. Some believe climate change may play a role, but there
> have also been indications that the stock might have actually grown.
>
> Ian Gatt, of the Scottish Pelagic Fishermen’s Association, said that the
> observations of fishermen supported the latter view, and that there was
> hope that a new stock assessment, for which the results will be available
> in September, would prove it. Such an outcome might lead scientists to
> raise their estimate of the size of the sustainable catch, even if
> countries remained divided over how to share it.
>
> For now, it appears that there is little hope of a breakthrough. Iceland
> is seeking somewhere approaching 15 percent of the catch, about double
> what it is being offered. Fisheries officials in several countries said
> there were not even plans for any formal negotiations. Noting Mr. Lochhead’s
> proposals Monday, Oliver Drewes, a spokesman for Maria Damanaki, the
> European commissioner for fisheries, said after a ministerial meeting that
> “all options are on the table at this stage.”
>
>
Lets go
Capt Jimmy Elliott:cool: