hat fish will have to be landed which cannot be sold and which might otherwise have survived if returned to the water unless the EU fish discard ban is implemented effectively, warned the House of Lords EU Committee on Agriculture, Fisheries, Environment and Energy.“While we welcome the move to implement a discard ban in the EU it will be pointless if it simply moves wastage from sea to land. To ensure that doesn’t happen, the policy must be implemented properly and the fishing industry must be fully engaged in developing the new rules that are required for its implementation,” said Baroness Scott of Needham Market, chair of the committee.
In a letter to the European Commission and Environment Minister Richard Benyon, the committee set out a number of areas where further work is required to ensure the discards ban is effectively implemented, including:
• Sufficient financial resources for local decision making
• Improving links between marine science research and industry
• Focus on compliance with the ban rather than heavy handed enforcement
• Public consumption of a wider variety of species
“It is important that all existing rules and regulations are reviewed to ensure that they are compatible with the discard ban. These include rules on the amount of time that vessels spend at sea,” said Scott. “Excessive restrictions like that will restrict the flexibility for vessels to move to other fishing grounds if they find, for example, that they are catching too many young fish.
“We are pleased to hear that the fishing industry are strong supporters of the ban and recognize that compliance is good for their futures and for the sustainability of the industry. Clearly though, implementation must take into account the reality of fishing businesses and how they work.”
