Denmark suggests cameras to stop EU's overfishing

By Jeremy Smith

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Denmark urged Europe on Monday to stop over-regulating its fisheries sector and help species survive by overhauling policy and taking steps such as putting video cameras on boats to stop fishermen cheating.

Danish Fisheries Minister Eva Kjer Hansen suggested the European Union would do well to copy her pilot scheme, under which fishermen who catch unwanted fish with other species are prevented from throwing them back into the sea to die.

"We should move from landing quotas to catch quotas -- meaning that everything that is caught is brought to land," she said before a meeting of EU fisheries ministers which will discuss policy reforms due to be agreed in 2012.

The EU's Common Fisheries Policy has been reviewed every 10 years since its creation in 1983. The latest reform was agreed in 2002.

"We have a very complicated policy with a lot of rules and micro-regulation which fishermen don't like," Hansen said.

"There's a big wish to see if we can do something else than coming up with another regulation ... It's now time to see whether we can have a total change in the fisheries policy."

The European Commission, which instigates and monitors EU fisheries policy, blames the dire state of fish stocks mainly on fleet overcapacity and persistent rule flouting such as unreported catches, quota-busting and use of illegal net sizes.

Europe imports two-thirds of the fish it consumes and scientists estimate 80 percent of EU fish stocks are overexploited.