BC FISH EUROPE/No EU fish agreement as row switches from quotas (Adds EU ambassadors' talks fail, Canadian reaction, writes through)

By Patrick Chalmers

BRUSSELS, April 12 (Reuter) EU ambassadors failed on Wednesday to ease their bitter fish dispute with Canada, insisting that any deal must be multilateral and should include compensation for the seizure of a Spanish trawler.

Ambassadors sidestepped any mention of how to share out North Atlantic catch quotas for Greenland halibut, the species at the heart of the row, switching attention to the areas where the European Union speaks as one.

"There was an update from the (European) Commission on their continuing contacts with the Canadians. This did not cover the issue of the (quota) share out," a British official told reporters.

He said the key questions for the 15 country bloc were compensation for Canada's seizure of the trawler Estai, which was arrested in international waters off Newfoundland in early March, and the mechanics of extending any EU/Canada deal to the other countries which fish the area.

"What happens about the compensation for the Estai trawler that was arrested? What happens if the bilateral deal cannot be stood up on a multilateral stage?" the official said.

Attention now switches to how Canada will react, given that Canadian Fisheries Minister Brian Tobin said on Monday that it could take unspecified action if there was no agreement by today.

"We will be meeting with the EU this afternoon," Canadian External Affairs Department spokeswoman Jennifer Sloan told Reuters after the ambassadors' talks ended.

"We have not been informed of any official results from the EU meeting this morning," she said.

An EU official said representatives of the European Commission and the French EU Presidency spoke to the Spanish and Portuguese ambassadors ahead of the full meeting of ambassadors.

The EU is seeking to thrash out a position which will satisfy Spain, where the fishing industry fears thousands of jobs will be lost if their trawlers's catches are drastically curbed. Spain catches 80 percent of the EU quota of Greenland halibut and Portugal the rest.

Canada says stocks are at dire risk from overfishing.

Madrid wants the EU to have 13,500 tonnes of the 1995 quota for the disputed area half the entire permitted catch.

A Spanish diplomat said on Wednesday there were still a number of issues to be sorted out. "A deal is close but that doesn't mean the agreement has been reached," he said. "The quotas I think are the last chapter."

He said it was also important to sort out the withdrawal of a disputed Canadian law extending the country's jurisdiction into international waters.

Another condition was compensation and the return of a bond paid for the Estai's release, he added. Spain wants a cast iron guarantee on this to coincide with any deal while Canada insists that the decision is in the hands of its judiciary.

In Ireland, the skippers of two trawlers of Spanish origin were expected to appear in court on Wednesday after a random spot check on Monday.

They are suspected of having exceeded the amount of fish they are allowed to take under EU regulations.

And in South Africa, a Spanish trawler crew and captain were detained on Tuesday after a tip off they were using an illegal "wall of death" gill net.