EU fisheries ministers crossed swords today over next year's permitted catches, trying to win the best deal for national fleets while preventing species like cod from collapsing after years of chronic overfishing.
The ministers were scrutinising the latest offer from Europe's fisheries chief, who yielded more ground from his original quota plan by offering slight rises in catch allowances to win over reluctant EU countries like France and Spain.
"It's a fair compromise. It increases catches ... and could be the basis for a deal," one EU official told reporters, adding that a final agreement might be possible early tomorrow morning.
The European Commission has recommended modest catch reductions for 2006 - far less drastic than in previous years - along with a few seasonal closures of waters to protect overfished species whose numbers are worryingly low.
At the same time, it wants to cut the maximum number of days vessels may spend at sea. This is a sensitive area for countries like Britain whose white-fish fleets, sailing mainly out of Scotland, already have to tie up their boats for weeks on end.
While cod stocks are in a slightly less perilous state than last year, scientists have again called for a blanket ban on cod fishing in areas like the North Sea and western Scottish waters. Now, the Commission wants to reduce days at sea for cod-fishing vessels by five percent, not the 15 per cent first suggested, and cut the 2006 cod quota by up to 15 per cent.
The Commission says cod stocks are in a "truly alarming" state in many areas like the North and Irish Seas, waters off western Scotland and between Denmark and Sweden - and so low in some waters that scientists cannot reliably estimate numbers.
Trawlers that catch species like haddock and monkfish would be limited in their "fishing days" to stop them picking up too much cod by accident. Those limits have now been revised downwards in the Commission's latest offer.
"The big problem is how to protect cod while allowing fishing to carry on. The best way is to apply a reduction in catch and ... days at sea, for all fisheries that catch cod," one Commission official told reporters.
Earlier today, the ministers agreed fishing quotas for the Baltic Sea and set higher cod quotas than 2005, but with several areas closed to vessels during the spawning season.