Aiming at a 20 per cent reduction in catches, Sweden implemented new rules for eel fishing on Feb.1.
The rules, varying from water to water, are included in the national management plan called for in a EU Council Regulation in 2007. The national plans were to be submitted to the Commission by the end of 2008, to be compiled and approved by the Commission by July 1 this year.
The Swedish plan does not go as far as the Irish plan, which included a total eel fishing ban, described by a Swedish top fisheries bureaucrat as “impressively forceful”.
Sweden enforced a partial ban on eel fishing on May 1, 2007. The only exception was made for professional fishermen with special licenses, the minimum requirement for obtaining one being that the fisherman had caught an average of 400 kilos of eel annually in 2003-2005. Close to 400 licenses were granted and renewed last year.