The European Commission abandoned plans on Tuesday to close off fishing areas in 2005 for severely depleted species such as cod, in the face of bitter opposition from EU governments such as Britain and France. In a bid to secure a deal over how much fish EU countries will be allowed to catch next year, while giving chronically low stocks a chance to recover, the EU's executive had wanted to ban cod fishing in several areas, mainly in the North Sea.
Instead of this idea - fiercely attacked by Britain whose Scottish fisheries would have been badly hit - the Commission wants to cut two days from the monthly allowance for vessels to catch cod, and toughen inspections to clamp down on over-fishing.
"The Dutch (EU) presidency seems to have concluded that closing areas is dead in the water," one EU diplomat said. "The British still find the compromise unacceptable ... they may have bought the French off but not necessarily the Spanish, yet."
The Commission had also wanted to close off a prized area in the Bay of Biscay for fishing anchovy, as well as a 85 percent cut in its 2005 quota - angering France and Spain. Now, there will be no closure and only a 10 percent quota cut from 2004.
Diplomats said they were surprised how quickly the Commission abandoned its plan to close fishing areas, but added that negotiations in the EU's annual "fish marathon" might already be moving forwards more quickly than usual.
"We will be going late, that's for certain. But we're now at the stage on day one where in previous years we were during the first night," the diplomat said.
The December fish talks usually last at least one night as bleary-eyed ministers haggle over the fine points of fishing quotas and trade off allocations with each other.
Scientists have repeatedly warned that fish numbers are so dangerously low in some areas that the only solution is to ban fishing. The Commission has usually rejected this idea for fear of wrecking communities dependent on fishing for a livelihood.
Cod, hake and sole are in danger of dying out, they say. But now, with the first signs of growth in numbers of cod - a tasty dish on dinner tables across Europe - in about 10 years, the Commission wants to keep up the drive to revive stocks.
For the threatened Norway lobster, a shellfish which looks like a cross between a large prawn and small lobster, three fishing grounds would be shut around the Iberian peninsula - two less than the Commission had recommended initially.
The steepest annual cuts remain for threatened deepwater species that are becoming an alternative to depleted mainstays such as cod and hake: fish with exotic names like orange roughly, black scabbardfish and forkbeard. The Commission is now prepared to stagger these quota reductions over two years.