EU fisheries minister calls for an end to dumping millions of dead fish

Fishing quotas, that have led to tonnes of dead fish being dumped in the sea, should be scrapped in favour of restricting the number of days at sea fishermen are allowed, according to the EU fisheries chief.
Louise Gray, The Telegraph 1 Sep 09;

Catch quotas that allow fishermen to land a limited amount of fish have been a key part of the Common Fisheries Policy for a quarter of a century.

However the policy has led to fishermen throwing away millions of tonnes of dead fish to avoid breaching the quota for that species, rather than making use of the whole catch.

Now Joe Borg, the EU Fisheries Commissioner, has called for an end to "discards".

Instead he told MEPs that fishermen should be limited by "effort". For example limiting the number of days vessels can spend at sea or where boats can fish.

"Replacing quotas by effort can be a very effective way of reducing the environmental impact of fisheries, and in particular of discards"," he said.

At the moment a mix of limits on catches and days at sea is in force, but if quotas were scrapped the whole policy would hinge on the carve-up of days at sea between boats, which would be transferable if the skipper wished.

Mr Borg said a vessel owner could rent them or sell his days at sea to another vessel owner:

"This could in turn help us to achieve the objective of having a smaller fleet commensurate to our resource base." he said. "For some, this may be radical thinking, but we need to explore every option if we are to make our fisheries policy truly fit for purpose."

The CFP imposed strict quotas on fish like cod in order to allow the species to recover from overfishing.

However in a mixed fishery like the North Sea once the quota is filled, fishermen carry on catching cod as by-catch.

It is estimated almost a million tonnes of fish are discarded in the North Sea every year as a result, with around 100,000 tonnes dumped by Scottish boats.

Brussels is currently consulting on a replacement for the CFP to be brought in by 2012.

Seafish, which represents fishermen in Britain, welcomed changing the system so that fishermen are limited by days at sea.

A Defra spokesperson said: “We agree that the CFP needs updating and we are looking at all the options. We will shortly be asking for the industry’s views on reforming the CFP and we welcome all contributions to that debate.”