Brussels, 04/10/2010 (Agence Europe) - The fisheries ministers of the United Kingdom, Denmark and Norway, who met at the conference on the North Sea in Aberdeen, Scotland, on 1 October, have called for far-reaching changes to management of fishing activities, in particular measures to reduce discards. The European Commission is already working on a phasing out of discards by introducing a zone by zone ban on “high grading”. This practice, already outlawed in parts of the North Sea (by virtue of the bilateral agreement with Norway) and in the Baltic Sea, consists of retaining the larger fish, which have a higher value and discarding the smaller fish - throwing them back into the sea. This means that fishermen have to retain on board and land all catches of fish on which total allowable catches (TACs) have been set.
The fisheries ministers of the UK, Richard Benyon, Denmark, Lisbeth Berg-Hansen, and Norway, Henrik Hoegh, adopted a statement (the Ardoe Statement) which says that: - member states should take all possible steps to account for and manage catches by their fishing fleets, without the discarding of dead fish back into the sea; - the “catch less land more” trials by Scotland and others can reduce discards and increase revenue, while encouraging sustainable fishing; - effective fisheries management in the North Sea should be results-based, with states determining how to achieve shared objectives, in coordination with one another; - new models need to be developed for regionalised fisheries management, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.
On discards, the three ministers argue for provision being made for output controls over total removals from the sea by fishermen (catch quotas), so as to allow progress towards the introduction of a discard ban primarily for cod and associated species throughout the North Sea and beyond. Representatives of other countries (France, Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands) also attended the conference on the North Sea region. (L.C./transl.rt)