EU wants smaller fishing feet to help stocks

"Fleets have the power to fish much more than can safely be removed without jeopardizing the future productivity of stocks," the EU executive said in a report on Europe's fishing future.

"This imbalance is at the root of all problems," the paper said. It also criticized the high subsidies governments still pay to the industry, often resulting in further overfishing. "European citizens almost pay for their fish twice: Once at the shop and once again through their taxes."

Cutting the feet and subsidies would undermine the current practices of the industry and create more protests from the beleaguered fishermen in the coming years. Only last week, French fishermen created travel chaos by block adding several English Channel ports to protest EU fishing quotas for sole and cod.

Such restrictive quotas have been at the heart of EU policies over the past decades, but have consistently failed to replenish Europe's seas. All too often, scientific advice was ignored to allow for more catches out of political expediency, the commission said.

"Fishing limits must be set according to scientific advice and not be subject to political horse-trading because without fish there will be no fishing," said Uta Bellion, director of the Pew Environment Group's European Marine Program.

The commission said 88 percent of stocks are overfished in EU waters, compared with only 25 percent worldwide. Almost one of three fish cannot reproduce normally because the population is too depleted. In the North Sea, 93 percent of the cod are now caught before they can spawn, contributing to the decline.

"In many fisheries we keep fishing two or three times more than what fish stocks can sustain," the commission said.

Cutting fleets would drastically affect key fishing nations like Spain, Italy, France, Greece and Britain. Spain has the biggest feet when it comes to tonnage, but its 11,350 boats are still outmatched by Greece, which has 17,350 and Italy with 13,700.

France, which traditionally is at the forefront of industrial action against EU fishing restrictions, has almost 8,000 boats.

In specific pockets on the Atlantic coast like France's Boulogne or Spain's Vigo, fishing has been a way of life for centuries and any cuts would be most severely felt there.

Even if the Commission did not say by how much the feet should be cut, the environmental group Green peace was clear enough.

"We've reached the end of the line: we need to halve the size of Europe's fishing feet, cut the fishing effort and protect 40 percent of EU waters with marine reserves," policy director Saskia Richartz said.

On top of imposing quotas, the EU is already moving to cut down on illegal fishing and landing undeclared fish.

Despite government subsidies that continue to fuel the excessive fishing effort, the EU fishing industry remains one mired in losses or small profits at best.

The commission proposals now faces months of scrutiny by industry, environmental groups and marine scientists before they will be discussed and decided on by the EU member states, a process that could take years.