2. Reducing fleet overcapacity 



The EC effort to reduce overcapacity has 

 included a variety of alternative approaches. EC 

 rules permit the transfer of vessels to new fisheries or 

 to non-fishing operations, restricting fishing effort 

 (requiring fishermen to remain in port for certain 

 periods of time, restricfing grounds, or limiting 

 fishing net mesh sizes), or deploying them in distant- 

 water fisheries. Scrapping or selling the vessels to 

 other countries, although permitted and encouraged, 

 is not the normal approach taken by the EC. Most 

 vessels withdrawn from the fishery are converted to 

 non-fishery uses including conversion into boats for 

 offshore oil work, houseboats, research craft, etc. A 

 few vessels, however, are sold or scrapped. 



Transferring vessels to non-fishery status: A 



review of the EC's decommissioning programs during 

 1985-86, shows that many vessels were converted 

 into vessels designed for offshore oil use in the North 

 Sea. Many other vessels were converted into 

 houseboats, research vessels, or other uses. 



Restricting fishing effort: EC fishery ministers 

 have pushed hard to develop alternatives to 

 decommissioning schemes. Restricted efforts include 

 increasing the size of mesh to allow younger fish to 

 escape. The EC Council established a 100 millimeter 

 mesh size during their meeting on October 28, 

 1991.^^ Other options include requiring vessels to 

 remain in port for certain days as part of a "tie-up" 

 program.^ Limits on landings sizes for mackerel, 

 anchovy, horse mackerel, scallops, and whiting have 

 also been enacted. Other measures are being 

 examined. These methods can provide temporary 

 relief to vessel owners and to stocks of fish. 

 However, these provisional measures increase 

 operating expenses and eventually undermine the 

 profitability of EC fisheries. These stop-gap 

 measures are, however, popular with politicians who 

 must face irate constituents who object to more 

 serious reductions in Total Allowable Catch (TAC) 

 quotas or allocations. 



Scrapping: Vessels which are in very poor condition 

 can be sold for scrap. This is a viable option and 

 scrapping does occur. The financial returns, 

 obviously, are less than if the vessels can be sold for 

 other uses. Past experience suggests that vessel 

 owners will attempt to maximize their investments in 



these vessels by converting the vessels to non-fishery 

 uses and will attempt to sell them as second-hand, 

 reconverted vessels at prices considerably higher than 

 prices paid for scrap metal. 



Sale to third countries: EC vessels are frequently 

 sold to third countries. Fishing News International 

 devotes several pages to the trade in fishing vessels 

 and EC vessels are frequently included in this 

 section. The failure of the EC to locate suitable 

 distant-water fishing grounds, especially for Spanish 

 vessels, is likely to result in a large number of 

 Spanish vessels being offered for sale in the coming 

 years. The authors, however, believe that EC 

 negotiators will be able to negotiate access to 

 Namibian waters and thus do not expect to see 

 significant numbers of vessels being sold in the near 

 future.^' 



Deployment to distant grounds: European 

 fishermen deployed many of their high-seas vessels in 

 distant-water fisheries long before the EC was given 

 the authority to negotiate international fishery 

 agreements on behalf of EC member states." These 

 distant-water fisheries changed significantly between 

 1960 and 1980, as nations extended their 200-mile 

 fishery limits. By 1980, 200-mile EEZs had been 

 announced by 93 countries, covering 130 million 

 square kilometers or nearly 35-percent of the world's 

 ocean area and almost all of the important fishing 

 grounds. This global shift in marine jurisdiction 

 impacted on EC fishing nations and made it 

 imperative that the EC aggressively seek new outlets 

 for its fishing fleet. 



International agreements have been used 

 effectively by the EC to deploy its massive fleet to 

 distant fishing grounds. Many of these agreements 

 were pre-existing: neighboring state to neighboring 

 state or bilateral agreements between European 

 countries and their former colonies. The EC's task, 

 in many cases, was simply to negotiate extensions of 

 these treaties on behalf of all its member states. In 

 other instances, however, negotiations had to be 

 initiated with new partners. The EC has gone on to 

 establish an intricate, far-flung series of fishery 

 accords stretching from the United States to the Baltic 

 Sea and from Morocco around the Cape of Good 

 Hope and out into the Indian Ocean. These 

 arrangements have been negotiated at considerable 

 expense, although the total cost and an assessment of 



