site.btaAgriculture Minister: Bulgaria Will Insist That Turbot Catch Levels Are Preserved

Agriculture Minister: Bulgaria Will Insist That Turbot Catch Levels Are Preserved

Sofia, December 10 (BTA) - During the forthcoming Agriculture
and Fisheries Council Bulgaria will not support the requested 15
 per cent reduction of the turbot harvesting quota in the Black
Sea, which means 36.72 tonnes annually compared to the present
43.2 tonnes. Romania would not support it either, Agriculture
and Food Minister Desislava Taneva said after the regular
meeting of the Council of Ministers Wednesday. The Council is
scheduled for December 15 and 16, in Brussels.
 
Bulgaria is subject to many financial and administrative efforts
 in respect to the control and reliability of data for this type
 of fishing, Taneva commented.

 The proposal is that Bulgaria and Romania yet again reduce
turbot catches, bringing them down from a total of 86.4 tonnes
to 73.44 tonnes, to be distributed equally between the two
countries. To date, Bulgaria has been engaged in sustainable
harvesting of turbot and has applied far more restrictive
measures than third countries operating in the Black Sea.
However, the fact that only this party imposes restrictions does
 not have a positive effect on the condition of this fish, the
government information service said.
 
Turbot continues to be the target of overfishing and Bulgaria
will also express its concern about the findings of a high
proportion of illegal, unregulated and undeclared fishing
activities related to these matters in international terms.

 Farmers in Bulgaria are sustaining losses from Russia's ban on
the import of agricultural produce from the EU, so Bulgaria
thinks the Commission should prepare an additional analysis of
the actual situation on the market, on the basis of which
decisions about subsequent measures aimed to stabilize it would
be made.