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The Danish Fisheries Agency will enforce a new rule on crab claws in the North Sea despite criticism and constructive suggestions from the industry. Photo: DFPO
Danish fishermen will face complying with new regulations introduced by the Danish Fisheries Agency on crab fishing in the North Sea despite criticism and constructive suggestions.
“The EU rule makes no sense and will hit net fishermen in the North Sea hard,” claims the Danish Fishermen’s Association. Wait for it to hopefully be changed, urges the
From 01 May, the Danish Fisheries Agency will no longer accept the landing of more than 75 kg of crab claws removed from brown crabs or more than one percent by weight of the total catch in nets and baskets.
The Danish Fishermen’s Association has bluntly criticised the move saying, “This is an old EU rule, which the authorities now want to enforce and sanction to the great inconvenience of the fishermen. The crab population is in no way depressed, on the contrary, more and more crabs are coming, which makes the 75 kg rule even more problematic.”
The Danish Fishermen’s Association has repeatedly pointed this out to the authorities in the Commercial Fishermen’s Committee but despite the problem, the authorities maintained yesterday that they will now enforce these provisions from 01 May.
“We have pressed for and appealed to common sense – because there is absolutely no such thing in these rules. If the fishermen are allowed to land a maximum of 75 kg, it simply means that the bycatch of crabs in the nets is wasted. It is a waste of a fantastically tasty food supply and an unnecessary loss of income of hundreds of thousands of kroner per year for some of the net vessels,” explains Ole Lundberg Larsen, deputy director of the Danish Fishermen’s Association.
Denmark’s Fishermen’s Association has, among other things, made a proposal on how to change the rules, a proposal that has been discussed in cooperation EU countries around the North Sea (Scheveningen Group).
“Therefore, we also believe that you should wait to enforce the rules until there has been a decision. Everything else seems unnecessary,” says Ole Lundberg Larsen.
“It is an old rule which the authorities have not found necessary in the past, and which also does not apply to the Kattegat and Skagerrak. Therefore, it is also very strange that it should be enforced all of a sudden. Instead, everything should be done to change it, instead of implementing it out of the blue to the great inconvenience of the fishermen,” he says.
Instead, the Danish Fisheries Agency could continue to provide guidance on the rule, as they have been doing since February.
