Irish fishermen are likely to face new restrictions and cuts in their total allowable catches from next year, the European commissioner for fisheries signalled yesterday.
Joe Borg, who begins a two-day visit to Ireland today, said deep-sea fishing and cod stocks in the Irish sea were being examined before a firm proposal for reductions in certain types of fishing will be made in December.
He said the commission was carefully considering the condition of deep-sea fish stocks in Irish waters, such as Orange Roughy, Halibut and Monkfish.
"The problem is that they are very sensitive to over-fishing because they tend to live longer and take longer to regenerate, so over-fishing will have a negative impact with regard to their sustainability," he said.
Mr Borg would not rule out introducing a stock recovery plan for cod in the Irish sea similar to one already in place in the North Sea, where there are severe cuts in catches.
"Cod is not in good shape anywhere . . . For the Irish waters we need to monitor the situation and the movements of the stock in order to decide on a course of action to adopt," he said.
Meanwhile, Mr Borg said the EU was beginning negotiations with the African state of Mauritania for a new fisheries agreement. He said any successful agreement would force the controversial Irish super-trawler Atlantic Dawn to drop its existing private licensing agreement with Mauritania and fish within the EU quota system.
Atlantic Dawn, which is owned by Donegal fisherman Kevin McHugh, is one of the biggest trawlers in the world and has been criticised by environmentalists for fishing for nine months of the year in African waters.
"We are taking a strong position that the fisheries partnership agreement with Mauritania should make it clear that it would not be able to give private licences to EU vessels," said Mr Borg, who added that the Atlantic Dawn's size was "not ideal".
A spokesman for the Atlantic Dawn said management would prefer an EU licence because it would be cheaper.