BC FISH CANADA (SCHEDULED)/Canada threatens action in fish row with Europe

By Randall Palmer

OTTAWA, April 10 (Reuter) Canadian Fisheries Minister Brian Tobin on Monday threatened possible action by Wednesday to protect fish off Canada's shores if by then no agreement is approved ending a bitter dispute with the European Union (EU).

Tobin declined to characterise his words as an ultimatum, but expressed disappointment that EU foreign ministers had failed to approve a draft EU Canadian agreement on sharing the harvest of turbot, or Greenland halibut.

He said there were two more EU meetings scheduled in the next 36 hours, following which Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien would discuss the outcome with selected colleagues.

"At that stage we will take whatever measures are deemed appropriate to fulfil the primary interest of the government of Canada to ensure the protection of this stock," Tobin told a news conference.

He said Canada was prepared to discuss the presentation of the agreement but added: "The substantive part of the agreement is there. It cannot be renegotiated."

The turbot dispute has cast a pall over normally warm transaTlantic relations but Canada, which spends billions of dollars a year on its unemployed fishermen, has repeatedly said it would act to save one of the last stocks of fish.

Spain also has an active fishing industry so active that it has enraged fishermen from Newfoundland to England and held up approval in Luxembourg on Monday.

Tobin made it clear he felt it was for Europe to bring Spain on board, not for Canada to make further concessions.

"Canada has been in our judgment extremely flexible in pursuit of a worthwhile and meaningful conservation regime," he said. "It's time to fish or cut bait."

He announced that Canada, to which the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organisation (NAFO) had originally awarded a shareout five times as great as the EU's, had agreed to equal shares a bit less than 10,000 tonnes each.

"In exchange for that is a very effective and meaningful enforcement and conservation regime," Tobin said.

Tobin said the draft agreement with Europe could be a model for sharing out and helping rebuild the other six stocks two species of cod and four of flatfish in the Northwest Atlantic that are as of now commercially extinct.

If managed properly, they have the eventual potential to yield 350,000 tonnes of fish worth $750 million Canadian ($550 million U.S.) a year a good deal more than the total 27,000 tonnes of turbot that will be allowed by all parties.

For turbot at least, that will require observers on all ships to make sure they do not violate agreed rules.

Appealing to Spain and its fishermen, he said: "Resisting the need for conservation doesn't guarantee you can stay on the water ... It guarantees there is no fish."

Tobin made it clear, however that until Wednesday no action would be taken against the 15 Spanish vessels fishing in disputed waters.