Brussels, 01/02/2008 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament (EP) has sided with the European Commission in calling for an end to discarding - a common practice which sees fishermen throw unwanted fish or shellfish overboard. On Thursday 31 January, the EP adopted the report by Carl Schlyter (Greens/EFA, Sweden) by 606 votes to 22, and welcomed the Commission's new attempt to encourage debate on this serious subject “with a view to finally shifting the emphasis of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) so that the practice of discarding is ultimately eliminated”.
The strategy to combat discards and by-catches (catching species other the one targeted) backed by the EP is close to the one put forward by the Commission in its communication (see EUROPE 9396) and puts in place a series of steps: - accurately estimate the quantities; - following consultation with stakeholders, set quantitative targets for discard reduction over a given period (e.g. a 50% reduction in two years); - regularly revise these quantitative targets leading ultimately to the elimination of discards; - adopt a discard ban for a fishery only if all the previous steps fail to achieve the desired reduction within five years.
While considering discarding as a general practice to be unjustifiable, the EP recognises that some species are known to have a high survival rate on release. Therefore, it wants derogations from a fishing ban on these species to be authorised. The EP says that fishermen could be compensated for the costs of landing the species they would have discarded. The fish in question could be used to produce fish meal and oil, according to the EP.
Parliament considers that high-grading, the practice of discarding good, legal fish for other fish that might find a higher price in the market, should be banned, “even though this would be difficult to enforce”. It considers that installing closed-circuit television (CCTV) on some vessels should be tried to facilitate enforcement.
Scottish example. MEPs welcomed the recent introduction by the Scottish government, in cooperation with the Scottish fishing industry, of a voluntary system of real-time area closures, whereby fishing grounds will be closed for a three-week period if skippers note high numbers of undersized cod. The EP believes that such initiatives (this is the first of its kind in Europe) have the potential to make a contribution to reducing discards while working with the full cooperation of the industry.
Environment, biodiversity. The EP stresses that an EU policy needs to tackle effectively all the different types of by-catch (including, but not exclusively, invertibrates, corals, marine mammals, birds and turtles) and should promote environmentally friendly catching methods, which neither compromise marine diversity nor cause unnecessary injury to other living organisms. The EP notes with concern that “very little progress” has been made in developing Community plans of action for seabirds and sharks. It calls on the Commission to take account of the available scientific opinion on albatrosses, which, particularly in longline fisheries, are being killed at a rate that is putting them at risk of extinction.
Incentives. The EP urges the Commission, member states and other stakeholders to consider the use of incentives for the industry to improve its fishing practices, in particular: - allowing more days at sea or increasing the allowable fishing time for vessels using more selective gear; - providing preferential access for vessels using selective gear to areas that are closed to those vessels not using selective gear; - allowing vessels with more selective gear to fish during times when others are not allowed.
Parliament notes that the 2006 regulation setting fishing quotas for 2007, already contains one example of preferential access for selective gear, with extra days at sea available to nephrops (langoustine) trawlers using a sorting grid. It agrees that other such incentives should be considered. The EP is convinced that a discard ban should only be implemented after other types of dissuasive measures, such as a timed series of increases in mesh sizes, closed areas and the like, have been tried.
Monitoring. The EP stresses the importance of an effective monitoring system once a ban on discarding fish has been introduced. It calls on the Commission to continue to develop new monitoring techniques, and draws attention to the possibilities offered by electronic log books and the use of CCTV.
Pilot projects. The EP agrees that the most sensible way to proceed would be to choose a number of pilot fisheries, based on the quantity of discards produced or the conservation status of the species involved. Two possible candidates would be the various beam-trawl fisheries and those fisheries that catch and discard cod.
Joe Borg very satisfied
European Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg said that the comments made by MEPs during the debate “demonstrate that we share the common objective of eliminating this appalling practice” of discarding fish. He said that the Commission intended to put a “gradual but effective” policy in place.
There had to be realism too, Borg added, “we simply cannot bring about a discard ban overnight”. He said he hoped, this year, to bring forward three legislative proposals to reduce discards in certain fishing activities. He rejected the accusations contained in the EPO resolution that it was CFP quotas which were responsible for discards. Discarding, he said, was largely the result of the practice of high-grading and the catching of under-sized fish and shellfish.
The Commission says that, since the publication of its communication, it has carried out in-depth consultations with member states and stakeholders on how to implement the new discard reduction policy. Opinions have been received from five Regional Advisory Committees (RACs) and from the Advisory Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture (ACFA).
A list of six types of fishing activity has been submitted by the Commission to its Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF), which is expected to deliver its opinion “very shortly”. These six fisheries are: - bottom trawling in the Mediterranean; - bottom trawling for “round” fish (whiting, monkfish, etc) in the Celtic Sea and Bay of Biscay; - fishing for flatfish (sole, plaice, turbot, etc) in the North Sea and Eastern Channel; - fishing for flatfish in the Baltic Sea; - pelagic fishing in the North-East and North zones; - fishing for crustaceans in the Bay of Biscay and off the Iberian Peninsula.
In the light of the STECF opinion, the Commission will select some fisheries for the first effective discard bans. At the same time, it will prepare a roadmap and timetable for rolling out this approach across all the major European commercial fisheries.
The Commission says it agrees with the Parliament that the reduction of overall fishing effort in EU fisheries is a major step towards eliminating discards. (L.C.)