Deepwater fish such as orange roughy, black scabbardfish and roundnose grenadier won more protection in yesterday’s meeting of EU fisheries ministers who agreed to quota cuts for the next two years.

Europe’s deep-sea fish are mainly found in the north Atlantic at depths of 400 meters and more; they grow and reproduce slower than fish in shallower waters and are extremely vulnerable to the level of overfishing which they have been subjected to in recent years.

Fishing for orange roughy will end from 2010.

These are one of the most vulnerable deep-sea species as although they can live for 150 years, they only begin to breed when they are 20 years old. Stocks of this fish have been almost totally depleted through overfishing, even though the fishery only began 30 years ago.

Quotas for black scabbardfish will be cut by 10% next year and a further 7% in 2010; there be two successive 15% cuts for roundnose grenadier in 2009 and 2010.

France, Spain, Portugal, the UK and Ireland are the EU countries with the most developed deep-sea fishing industries - developed in the sense of ability to exploit stocks rather than in the sense of recognising and mitigating the impact of that exploitation.

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2. Deeper cuts proposed for 2009
3. Cuts in days at sea
4. Mackerel quota up 33%