A discards research project, ‘Utilisation of discards in bait’, has found that commonly discarded species could be used to balance the current shortage of bait in the supply chain.
The project was funded by Seafish and Defra.
Michaela Archer at Seafish said: “The bait market has capacity to be a solution for the utilisation of discarded fish, but needs further investigation in terms of feasibility, storage, transportation, costs, handling and further investment on a local and national level.”
Following the initial studies, Defra and Seafish have tasked NFFO Services to focus on delivering three key project stages by February 2014: a review of the bait supply chain; commercial trials; and reporting the key findings once trials have been completed.
Dale Rodmell, NFFO assistant chief executive said: “There is much to work out yet about how the landings obligation can be made to work, whilst avoiding unintended consequences, but utilising discards for bait does offer one possible opportunity”.
