The EU says European fishing fleets will have to cut their catches of cod, haddock and sole next year, but a ban on anchovy fishing has been lifted.

Cod is among the depleted species in EU fishing grounds.

The quota for cod fishing is being cut by 15-35%, depending on the area. But there is an exemption for cod fishing in West Scotland and the Celtic Sea.

There are increased quotas for some fish, including plaice – by up to 14% – and herring – by 72% in the Celtic Sea.

Anchovy fishing will resume in the Bay of Biscay. A ban was imposed in 2005.

That is seen as good news for French and Spanish trawlers.

But fishing for endangered porbeagle and spurdog sharks will be banned.


EU 2010 FISHING QUOTAS
Reductions: haddock (-25% in W Scotland); sole (-20% in Eastern Channel); cod (up to -35%, except for W Scotland and Celtic Sea); Norway lobster (-20%); southern anglerfish (-15%); whiting (-10% in W Scotland and Irish Sea)
Increases: northern hake (+7%); plaice (up to +14%); megrim (+5% in North Sea and W Scotland); herring (+72% in Celtic Sea); anglerfish (+15% in Bay of Biscay)

One innovation in the EU fisheries policy for 2010 is that crews will be entitled to a 5% larger catch if they install CCTV cameras on their vessels to monitor conservation measures.

The plan is for the cameras – three per vessel – to check on the size of catches and to ensure that crews do not illegally toss unwanted fish back into the sea – a wasteful practice known as "discards".

Denmark has been urging the EU to adopt CCTV on board trawlers. It introduced such a pilot scheme in September 2008.

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