Thursday, 31st January 2008
Brussels demands an end to the fish discards scandal
The European Commission has welcomed a vote in the European Parliament (31-01-08) on the issue of fisheries discards, the environmentally unsustainable policy whereby over 1 million tonnes of healthy fish are dumped dead into the sea every year, in EU waters.
The discards debacle is the only way that fishermen can comply with Common Fisheries Policy management rules which would lead to them being prosecuted if they attempted to land out of quota or juvenile, immature fish. Now under decisions voted through in Brussels, fisherman will be compelled to land everything they catch. The North Sea may well be chosen by the Commission as the first test area to try out the new ban later this year. Scottish fishermen may find that they have to adapt to a completely new management policy which forces them to land everything they catch.
The new land-all policy has many benefits. Scientists will get a much clearer picture of what fish are being caught where, which will enable more accurate conservation and recovery plans to be devised. Also, when young, undersized fish are landed, fisheries inspectors could immediately call for a temporary closure of specific fishing grounds, to avoid further pressure on immature stocks.
Under this policy, undersized fish and other species which previously would have been thrown back into the sea could be sold to the processing sector, which is desperate for raw material to supply the fishmeal and fish oil industry. They would be paid through a regional compensation fund a token amount, say £50 per tonne, which would not be enough to encourage targeting these fish, but too much to throw dead back into the water. The whole operation could be policed by attaching weatherproof CCTV cameras to every vessel.
In an industry already constrained by limitations of the number of days that can be spent at sea, time spent catching and sorting fish of no commercial value is regarded by fishermen as valuable time lost, so hopefully fishermen in Scotland will support the new initiative aimed at ending the discards scandal.
