Eighty-five per cent of European Union fish stocks are overfished, with key species such as cod critically below safe population levels, officials in Brussels said Friday.
But the EU’s executive, the European Commission, still expects member states to increase catch quotas for North Sea cod next year, despite clear signs that conservation schemes are not working.
Out of 35 fish stocks examined by EU scientists this year, 30 are classified as being overfished, commission fisheries conservation chief Maria de la Fuensanta Candela Castillo said as she presented the commission’s proposed quotas for 2010.
That is down from a record of 32 stocks being overfished in 2005, but up from 29 stocks last year.
"We are simply fishing too much," Candela Castillo said.