EU ban on sales from recreational fishing will hit Finnish enthusiasts

Finland ultimately left alone in opposing ban

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At a meeting in Luxembourg that went on into the small hours of Tuesday morning, European Union fisheries ministers eventually reached agreement on a new control regime to prevent fishermen across the EU from landing illegal catches.
      The agreement follows repeated reports of undeclared or illegal catches that the European Commission argues have hindered conservation efforts.
     
Aside from controls on professional fishermen, including penalty points that could lead to the suspension or withdrawal of a fishing licence, there will also be new limits on recreational fishing where it is considered to threaten endangered fish stocks.
      The main beef for Finnish fishermen is that the EU is to prohibit the sale of catches taken by amateur fishermen in their boats in Finnish marine waters.
      Finland opposed the move, but other countries carried the day.
     
"The decision is likely to increase the grey economy, since fish will be sold in any case", said Minister of Agriculture Sirkka-Liisa Anttila (Centre Party) in Luxembourg on Tuesday.
      Anttila believes that the ban is a bad blow to the EU's image, and will only fuel the "meddling" impression from Brussels.
      Fishing is a part of Finnish culture, and the custom has been to sell the odd fish left over to friends and neighbours at a nominal price.
      Lake fishing will not be affected by the ban, and nor will fish caught from rods on shore.
      Anttila intends to bring the ban home to be chewed over in Finland.
     
There is basically nothing that the Finns can do about it, because a majority of EU member-states are behind it, but the staff of the ministries of justice and agriculture will have to put their heads together and work out a suitable punishment for those who brerak the law.
      A fine is the likely outcome, but actually monitoring the ban will be extraordinarily difficult in practice.
     
For the most part, Finnish recreational fishermen in sea areas catch pike, perch, whitefish, and even roach. Recreational fisherman account for between 7 and 10% of the catch of quota-restricted sea salmon.
      In future, the sale of any extra salmon - or any other fish caught from the sea - to the neighbours or to relatives will be off-limits.
      The Finns did get one small victory in the Luxembourg discussions: it was agreed that, for now at least, recreational catches will not be counted against national quotas.
      The catching of fish by recreational fishermen may not be a threat to stocks in the Baltic, but it is a different story in the Mediterranean, and hence the eagerness with which some EU member-states have pressed for the ban.


Links:
  Europa: Fisheries
  Fisheries Council Press Release 20.10.2009
  Fisheries Council, October 2009

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