Polish fishing vessels larger than 12 meters will not be fishing for cod in the Baltic Sea this summer. The Minister of Agriculture, Marek Sawicki, signed a legally binding order which limits cod fishing activities from 22 May until 30 September.
Kazimierz Plocke, the Polish Vice-Minister of Agriculture, released this information at a press conference on Tuesday, 20 May. Plocke informed that the main reason for implementing the ban now is the near-exhaustion of the available cod quotas for 2008.
Plocke further stressed that the Polish monitoring and control agency estimates indicate that Polish fishermen already used up 70% of their available cod quotas. The European Commission (EC), however, provides higher quota exhaustion figures. EC suggests that as of 15 May, Polish fishing units have fished out as much as 90% of their allowable cod catches. The discrepancy between the Polish government figures and the EC figures has not been addressed.
Plocke assured that vessels, which respect the cod ban, will receive compensation. However, the cod ban only applies to vessels measuring more than 12 meters. Over 60% of the Polish fishing fleet consists of boats that are smaller than 12 meters.