EU stats reveal fishing industry decline
The EU released new figures today illustrating the decline in the fishing industry, with catches falling by 20% in the 12 years up to 2002.
The data comes as the EU struggles to cope with years of declining fish stocks and warnings that cod and other popular species risk extinction in traditional European fishing grounds without stringent measures to limit catches.
To compensate for falling catches, production of farmed fish in the EU increased by about 2 % from 1990 to 2002, the EU’s statistics agency said.
According to Eurostat, farmed seafood now accounts for a sixth of the total EU fisheries production.
The number of fishing boats in the EU fell from 103,633 in 1995 to 88,122 in 2003, a 15% drop. The largest falls were registered in Spain, Italy and Britain.
Eurostat gave no overall EU figure for employment in the fishing industry, but data for individual countries showed a significant decline in Britain from 21,582 to 11,774; in Portugal from 38,700 to 20,033 and in Greece from 11,068 to 7,954.
