BRUSSELS, Dec 17 (Reuters) – European Union fisheries ministers have watered-down plans to ease the pressure on over-exploited fish stocks next year, drawing an angry reaction from conservationists who accused them of ignoring scientific advice.
After two days of talks which ended in the early hours of Saturday, ministers rejected proposals to ban cod catches in the Irish Sea and the straits between Sweden and Denmark, and agreed a massive increase in North Atlantic haddock catches for 2012.
"We managed to strike the right balance between the needs of the fisheries sector, and the protection of stocks and managing the limited resources in our seas," Poland's deputy agriculture minister, Tadeusz Nalewajk, who led the talks, told a news conference.
But conservation group Oceana said the final deal had fixed catch limits more than 20 percent above the maximum level recommended by the European Commission, which would hamper EU efforts to put an end to decades of overfishing.
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