EU extends quotas for some fish next year

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union has decided to increase catch quotas for some fish in its waters next year, but has reduced the days fishermen can spend them at sea to haul them in.

Saturday's agreement after three days of negotiations was criticized by environmental groups for not sticking by scientific advice to set stricter quotas in many cases, while the fishing industry said that bigger quotas meant little if boats did not have enough days at sea to meet them.

The annual year-end negotiations ended up in an extensive bartering session where the EU fisheries ministers and the European Commission tried to find a middle ground between protecting threatened fish stocks like Atlantic cod and the need to giving a dwindling industry a viable future.