It appears that the European Commission has finally listened to the environmental organisations campaigning for discards to be eliminated and has recently adopted a Communication on the matter.
Discarding is the practice of dumping overboard unwanted fish or other marine organisms which have been caught unintentionally.
According to the Commission, discard rates in European fisheries vary widely but can be as high as 70-90% of the catches in some trawl fisheries.
What the Commission has proposed involves the adoption of a progressive fishery-by-fishery discard ban and the setting of standards for maximum acceptable by-catch. The Commission believes that this will provide an incentive for the industry to devise ways to meeting the by-catch targets, rather than through a series of measures to regulate landings. In short, the incentive would be for fishers to take from the sea only what can be marketed. The debate on achieving these aims will continue till the end of 2007 and the first proposed measures could be tabled in 2008.
The Commission believes that a management system based on outcomes, defined in terms of maximum acceptable by-catch, together with an obligation to land all fish caught, will provide a strong incentive for fishermen to devise the technical solutions that are most appropriate to their own activities.
The exact structure of such a management system, and its impact on related measures, such as total allowable catches and quotas, will need to be worked out in some detail, as will the arrangements to be put in place for landing what would previously have been discarded.
Marine conservation organisation Oceana has said that it is hopeful that the debate will result in a total ban on discards.
Ricardo Aguilar, Head of Research for Oceana in Europe is, on the whole, supportive of the Communication: “This document sets out to change the management focus, for example with quotas based on catches and not on quantities unloaded at port, something which Oceana has been calling for”.
WWF is also supportive of the proposal, but says the initiative must be fully supported by EU countries.
“With over 80% of European fish stocks already overexploited, there is no reason to allow such a shameful waste to continue,” says Aaron McLoughlin, Head of WWF European Marine Programme. “We welcome the move by the European Commission, but the success of the initiative will depend on EU Member States' willingness to put it in place, otherwise it will be just end up being a little drop in the ocean”.
And the Scottish Fishermen's Federation (SFF) is urging for a cautious approach, warning that the proposed management system must be implemented sensibly.
“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,” said Bertie Armstrong, SFF chief executive.
“The detailed proposals have yet to be discussed and as usual the devil will be in the detail. Unintended consequences must be avoided as there is a real danger of serious extra constraints being imposed on a fleet that is already very tightly managed by quotas and days-at-sea restrictions.”
