Fischler-ing for Trouble

The E.U. has announced a proposal to overhaul Europe's fisheries policy, a move that would save endangered species but cost some 28,000 jobs. The reforms would entail cutting the size of the fishing fleet by 8.5 percent, a reduction that E.U. Fisheries Commissioner Franz Fischler called necessary for the future of European fishing. "Either we have the courage to make bold reforms now, or we watch the demise of our fisheries sector in the years ahead," Fischler said. Despite efforts to protect fish species by imposing annual catch quotas on E.U. nations, the stocks of many European fish have fallen to dangerously low levels, and two-thirds of Northeast Atlantic stocks are below safe biological limits. Environmentalists welcome the plan to protect the fish, but southern European countries and Ireland, which will be most strongly affected, are expected to resist it.