News / Little support for discard ban
NORTHERN isles MP Alistair Carmichael has urged caution over European Commission plans to ban fish discards, following Tuesday’s announcement by fisheries commissioner Maria Damanaki.
His comments come after UK fishing minister Richard Benyon dismissed the idea of a discard ban after attending the informal summit on the issue in Brussels on Tuesday.
The Scottish fishing industry has also dismissed the plan as impossible to implement.
Ms Damanaki proposed limiting fishermen’s days at sea or introducing a “catch quota” system that allows them to land everything they catch up to their quota limit.
Mr Benyon said the proposals gave the wrong kind of incentives to fishermen, encouraging them to race to fish, target high value species and fish inshore where the most damage could be caused.
“What we want to encourage is fishermen to fish in different places and to fish sustainably…to be good stewards of the sea.”
Mr Carmichael welcomed the attention drawn to the issue by TV chef Hugh Fearnley- Whittingstall, whose Hugh’s Fish Fight programme generated 650,000 signatures opposing the dumping of dead fish at sea, however he said there was a danger of tackling a symptom without dealing with the disease.
“The disease, of course, is a Common Fisheries Policy which is centralised and bureaucratic and which pays little attention to the people who know most about what is in the sea – the fishermen and scientists who work at sea,” he said.
“In particular, I have long been of the opinion that we need to improve the scientific data which underpins our fisheries management efforts to allow for more accurate stock assessments.
“This will help ensure that the restrictions we place on the actions of the fleet – whether quota levels or days at sea reductions – are fair and ensure that we fish sustainably.”
Shetland Fishermen’s Association chief executive Hansen Black added that a discard ban simply would not work under current circumstances, with stocks constantly changing and fisheries science lagging two years behind current reality.
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