Denmark has adopted a new fisheries regulation to strengthen the framework for Danish fishery in the years ahead. The agreement marks a significant departure from the policy pursued so far according to which fishermen were allocated vessel rations for merely two weeks or one month at a time. Instead, the fishermen will be allocated a fixed share of the annual national quota in the form of so-called vessel quota shares.
The system implies that both vessels and quota shares may be traded in a way where the “fish follows the vessel tonnage“ in opposition to the ITQ system, where quotas can be traded separately. This supports a structural development within the Danish fishing sector that will result in a more profitable industry. It will also constitute the basis for renewal of the Danish fishing fleet, improvement of the working environment as well as the quality of the catches that are landed.
Commenting on the agreement, Minister for Food, Agriculture and Fisheries Hans Christian Schmidt says, “One of the main objectives of the reform has been to strengthen profitability by improving the framework and by increasing predictability for the fishing industry, which will enable the individual fisherman to plan for much longer than just one month ahead.
“We have reached agreement on a model that will reduce the discarding of fish at sea. With an annual quota, the individual fisherman will no longer have to stay within a tight short-term quota. Therefore, fishermen will not to the same extent feel forced to throw good edible fish back into the sea,” points out Minister for Food, Agriculture and Fisheries Hans Christian Schmidt.
Another goal of the reform is to provide a better framework for coastal fisheries. It is a framework that will protect the individual coastal fisherman and contribute to ensuring development in coastal communities.
“Denmark has a coastal line of 7,000 kilometres and many small communities that depend on coastal fishing for their livelihood. We have now made sure that, also in future, coastal fisheries will remain an important part of the Danish fishing sector and a developing factor for the communities along the coast,” says Hans Christian Schmidt.
The new fisheries regulation will ensure additional fish for coastal fishermen, and it will protect coastal fishing by making it impossible to sell off coastal vessels with fishing rights from the coastal fisheries segment. By contrast, coastal fishermen may buy fishing rights outside the scheme.
The so-called ITQ scheme with transferable quotas for herring will be continued, and the regulation of mackerel and industrial fishing will be drawn up like the herring regulation. It is a significant simplification to have common rules for the three species, as it is typically the same vessels that catch these fish.
Lastly, Denmark will earmark funds for a decommissioning scheme regarding demersal fishing. The decommissioning scheme is to contribute to reducing the excess capacity in the fisheries sector and thereby securing more fish for the vessels that are left. The framework for this scheme will be established in connection with the 2006 Budget negotiations. There are no plans to introduce a decommissioning scheme regarding industrial fishing.
