Poland opposes a European Union order to stop fishing cod in the eastern Baltic Sea and may take the bloc’s executive to court for imposing the ban, Fisheries Minister Rafal Wiechecki said

BRUSSELS, Belgium; July 30, 2007.- “We believe the European Commission’s decision was based on unreliable figures and may lead to the destruction of the fishing industry in Poland,” Wiechecki told reporters after meeting EU Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg.

The Commission ordered Poland to halt trawling for cod in the area, saying the country misreported its catch and exceeded its EU quota for the threatened species.

Large discrepancies between catch figures reported to Brussels by the Polish authorities and those provided by EU inspectors revealed that Poland had exhausted its entire 2007 cod quota for this zone, it said.

Wiechecki said Poland had used only 70 percent of its quota, adding he would recommend that the Polish government take the Commission to the European Court of Justice over its decision.

Commission officials have said Poland had received several warnings to slow down cod fishing in the region, as had Germany — but Berlin had complied, while Warsaw had not.

Sweden and Lithuania have received similar warnings.

Scientists have long advised that eastern Baltic cod has been overfished to the point where the species might vanish from the area and have recommended an outright fishing ban.

Stocks in the western Baltic are in slightly better shape but still massively over-exploited with low yields, they say.

(Reuters)

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