The unity on display at the EU high level meeting on fisheries in Brussels yesterday from fisheries ministers and the EU Commission alike on the scandal of fish discards is welcome.
Commissioner Damanaki was right to call this practice unethical and unjustifiable.
But it is only the start. Fine words must now be followed by firm action. Ending discards cannot wait until reform of the Common Fisheries Policy in 2013. It is a moral crusade which needs immediate action to end the appalling waste of edible fish, estimated by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation at 8% globally, and as much as half of the total EU whitefish catch.
Discard is the innocuous term given to the practice whereby fishermen throw fish overboard either because they don’t have the quota to catch them or because they were not the right kind of fish. It is a terrible and needless waste.
Fisheries may not be an everyday subject for Progress readers but it is a major industry across Europe with ramifications for the environment and the economy.
The UK Government could do more to end the practice of discarding in three key areas.
First, it should press for a wider range of fish species to be included in the discard ban. Currently, the European Commission plans to restrict the ban at first to ‘pelagic’ fish such as herring or mackerel in the first instance.
Second, the Government needs to be clear in its aims for reform of the Common Fisheries Policy. It should seek to involve fishermen themselves in more regionalised management of fisheries, and get them to take more responsibility for safeguarding the marine environment and protecting marine biodiversity. The EU should move towards complete use of catch quotas, as in the Danish and Scottish trials which offer incentives to those fishermen willing to show a lead on this issue. The UK Government should be seeking approval from both the EU and the Norwegian authorities to expand the scope of the current catch quota trials – nearly half of the Scottish whitefish fleet would have participated this year had the additional capacity been available. This requires greater use of CCTV or observers on larger boats to monitor what is being taken from the sea.
Third, the Government should have a strategy to promote the greater consumption of different types of fish in the UK. Herring and mackerel fishermen in Britain have experienced desperate times recently with the unjustified behaviour of the Icelandic and Faroese fishing industry over the mackerel and herring fish quotas. Government support is essential to help the industry back on its feet.
This week’s meeting was not the end of the campaign – just the end of the beginning. Keeping up the momentum and translating it into real action is essential to end the scandal of wasted fish for good.