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The European Commission has adopted a communication on reducing
unwanted catches and eliminating discards in European fisheries.
Discarding is the practice of dumping overboard unwanted
fish or other marine organisms which have been caught unintentionally.
Discard rates in European fisheries vary widely - from negligible
in some small-scale coastal fisheries, to up to 70-90% of
the catches in some trawl fisheries.
The proposed approach represents an innovation for the Common
Fisheries Policy. It involves the adoption of a progressive
fishery-by-fishery discard ban and the setting of standards
for maximum acceptable by-catch. This will provide an incentive
to industry to devise ways to meeting the by-catch targets,
rather than through 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.
"Discarding is wrong because it represents a waste of
precious marine resources. Therefore, it makes no ecological,
economic or ethical sense. The sooner we bring this wasteful
practice to an end, the better for fish stocks, the marine
environment and the fishing industry" - European Commissioner
for Fisheries and Maritime Affairs, Joe Borg, commented.
Discarding has been addressed in the EU before - mainly through
measures regulating fishing gear, such as net mesh sizes or
the use of escape panels in - or acoustic devices on - nets.
Some types of fishing gear have had considerable success,
but the application of the related measures is already complicated
to apply and control. To make it more complex would be counter-productive.
Instead, 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. Such a system would also be far simpler for
all parties to implement and enforce. Flanking measures would
include encouragements to improve the selectivity
of fishing gear, area closures and obligations to switch fishing
grounds when there are aggregations of young fish, for example.
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. The Communication is
intended to initiate a debate which will continue through
to the end of this year. A plan for implementation in specific
fisheries will be drawn up and the first regulations for specific
fisheries could be proposed as early as 2008.
Discarding threatens sustainability
Unwanted catches and discards represent a direct threat to
the sustainability of European fisheries, as most of the fish
and organisms discarded do not survive. Discarding particularly
affects young fish, which are below the authorised minimum
landing size (MLS). MLS are designed to ensure that young
fish are not targeted, so that they stay in the sea to replenish
the stocks.
However, discarding also hits stocks of adult fish. This
can be the case in fisheries where several species are caught
together (for example, cod, haddock and whiting). The vessel
may have quota remaining for one species - e.g. haddock -
but not for the others (cod or whiting). Fishers can also
choose to retain only the most valuable fish, thus dumping
marketable fish of lower value.
Discarding results in reducing the number of mature fish
which could be caught and sold - by fishing them when they
are too young and reducing the number of mature fish which
survive to reproduce.
In both cases, discarding directly reduces the future productivity
of the seas. Discarding also affects other species taken as
unwanted by-catch - not only non-commercial species of fish,
but also other marine organisms such as some sea birds, turtles
and mammals. It thus, not only undermines the biological and
economic sustainability of the fisheries within which it is
practiced, but it can also have a wider negative impact on
the marine environment, on the integrity of marine ecosystems
and on the conservation of biodiversity.
Discarding, therefore, is contrary to both the aims of the
Common Fisheries Policy and to specific commitments made by
the European Union, such as those under the UN Convention
on Biodiversity, or the commitment to manage fish stocks for
sustainable yield given at the Johannesburg World Summit on
Sustainable Development.
A 2005 study published by the Food and Agriculture Organisation,
estimated the amount of discards in the North Atlantic at
1,332,000 tonnes per year - 13% of the catches. The estimated
discards for the North Sea ranged from 500,000 to 880,000
tonnes.
To the west of Ireland and Scotland, discards ranged from
31 to 90% of catches - depending on the fleets, target species
and depth. In the Mediterranean and Black Seas, discards amounted
to 18,000 tonnes or 4.9% of the catches. In the Baltic, this
rate was estimated to be low at an average of 1.4%.
See also MEMO/07/120
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