EU fish production falls

The largest decreases in production over this period were registered by Denmark (-570 000 tonnes or -28 per cent), Spain (-260 000 tonnes or -18 per cent), Poland (-200 000 tonnes or -44 per cent) and Italy (-160 000 tonnes or -26 per cent). Only Lithuania (+93 000 tonnes or +157 per cent) recorded a significant increase in production.

Among the EU15 Member States, the largest falls in fishing fleets in 2003 were registered in Spain (-4 000 vessels), Italy (-3 400) and the United Kingdom (-2 700).

These figures, which appear in a recently published report issued by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities, underline the general trend in European fishing. The embattled industry was further threatened last December when the EC unveiled plans to close a fifth of the North Sea to fishing in order to help rescue cod stocks from collapse.

"If we don't take measures which are quite tough now, the situation can only become worse,"​ claimed EU fisheries commissioner Joe Borg.

However, the EC has since retreated from this proposal after ferocious opposition from the fishing industry. "The radical recommendation to close down much of the UK coastline would have a devastating impact on the fishing industry and the communities that rely on it,"​ said the UK's Sea Fish Industry Authority in a statement.

Amongst the Member States, Denmark (1.47 million tonnes) was the largest producer in 2002, followed by Spain (1.15m tonnes), France (0.95mtonnes) and the United Kingdom (0.87m tonnes). These four Member States accounted for almost 60 per cent of the total EU25 production.

In 2002 the EU25 produced nearly 7.6 million tonnes of fishery products, or about 5 per cent of the world total. Catches in the Northeast Atlantic alone, at 4.62 million tonnes, made up more than 60 per cent of total EU25 production, with catches in the Eastern Central Atlantic and the Mediterranean accounting for 8 per cent and 7 per cent respectively.