Polish fishermen want to send their old boats to fishing villages on the Indian Ocean wiped out by last month's tsunami, rather than scrapping them under a European Union programme, a trade leader said on Monday.
The United Nations says the killer wave destroyed or very seriously damaged 80 percent of Sri Lanka's coastal fishing boats. The disaster also killed two-thirds of fishermen from Banda Aceh, the capital of Indonesia's Aceh province.
Poland joined the EU last year and the bloc has budgeted 200 million euros ($262 million) to restructure the Polish fishing industry through 2006, involving paying some fishermen to destroy their boats to prevent overfishing.
"The fishermen think sending the boats to tsunami victims is a great idea. We've got to work fast and sort out some problems, but why cut up a boat for scrap if somebody can use it," Witold Nowak, head of a fishermen's trade body, told Reuters.
Poland's Agriculture Ministry said a group of German businesspeople had offered to pay for transporting the boats to the Indian Ocean if the scheme wins EU approval.
Poland has about 400 vessels of 15-50 metres (50-160 foot) and 860 smaller boats, according to EU data. Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza said about 240 fishermen were planning to scrap their trawlers.
The European Commission has asked the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) to draw up a list of equipment needs from Indian Ocean fishing states before sending boats, a spokeswoman said.
"If there's a need in the Indian Ocean for small vessels, those from the Community could be used," said Commission fisheries spokeswoman Mireille Thom, adding that the EU would make sure the boats met local requirements.
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