EU govts rapped for not protecting deep-sea fish

EU govts rapped for not protecting deep-sea fishMon Jan 29, 2007 12:33 PM GMTBRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU countries are not doing enough to save Europe'sdeep-water fish, exotic but threatened species that are fast becoming analternative to overcaught mainstays such as cod and hake, the EU executivesaid on Monday.Europe's deep-sea fish, such as the orange roughy, black scabbardfish,forkbeard, blue ling and roundnose grenadier, grow and reproduce far moreslowly than fish in shallower waters and are more vulnerable to overfishing.As numbers of EU commercial stocks such as cod, sole and hake started tofall in the early 1990s, the deep-water fish became an attractive catch astrawlers switched from traditional fishing grounds. Some deep-water fishlive for up to 150 years.Last November, EU ministers thrashed out a deal setting quotas and permitteddays at sea for vessels catching these species for 2007 and 2008. Quota cutsranged between 10 and 25 percent below the quotas allocated to EU countriesin 2005. Those reductions were partly based on similar cuts agreed for the previous2005-06 period. Full story at