Ministers are currently discussing the Baltic Sea catch quotas amid a controversial ban imposed by the EU that risks bankrupting fisheries in the Baltic Sea due to restrictions on types of fish, some of which have been slashed by up to 71 percent. Examples are cod, which shall be fished only in very small quantities, with catches of the western cod is to be reduced by 68 percent. Mr Juncker and his team allowed herring catch in the western Baltic Sea is to be reduced by 71 percent. If the bloc’s fisheries ministers follow the proposals of the EU Commission to continue the ban, the German Fisheries Association fears that many companies on the Baltic coast will no longer be able to cope with the planned cuts and go bankrupt.
Deputy chairman of the Schleswig-Holstein State Fisheries Association, Benjamin Schmöde, said: “I do not think that the decision will deviate significantly from the recommendations of the EU Commission.”
As well as the ban on types of fish, the European Commissions also seeking to limit the amount of fish not on the ban to two per day.
This has caused outrage among those in the fishing industry.
Christopher Zimmermann, director of the Thünen Institute for Baltic Sea Fisheries in Rostock, sees climate change and the associated warming of the Baltic Sea as a major cause of declining development of the herring population.
He said: “It was heavily overfished for years. The cod stock does not recover even if you close the fishery for the next five years.”
The EU argue the ban will make types of fish thrive before it is eventually lifted, forcing the fishing industry to become more seasonal.
The news comes after a long battle to keep the EU out of British waters.
The British and the French have locked horns on several occasions in a battle over British territory, which Paris believes they have an entitlement to.
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French fishermen have already warned they would stop British fish being sold in France if they were barred from the waters.
Chairman Oliver Lepretre said: “If there is a hard Brexit, I can assure you that not a single kilo of seafood or fish from Britain will get into France.
Current EU laws make 12 nautical miles around the coast of Britain free to use for foreign ships.
International boats are also given access to up to 70 percent of the quotas for ground stocks in Britain.
France alone lands 120,000 tonnes of fish from the UK fishing zone, with the Netherlands and Denmark netting 177,000 tonnes and 237,000 tonnes respectively.
British fishermen are excited by the prospect of exclusive access and the end of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP).
Polls claimed 92 percent of those in the industry voted to leave the European bloc, with concerns on the CFP at the forefront of the debate.
Fishermen say leaving the EU would see the sector boom without stringent CFP rules on the amount and type of each fish that are allowed to be caught.
Additional reporting by Monika Palenberg.
