EU Fish Discards Set To End
Brussels -- 1 March 2011
Today's news that discards will be brought to end is great news for fishermen in Yorkshire.
My colleagues and I have campaigned against this wasteful practice for years and I therefore welcome Commissioner Damanaki's announcement expressing her commitment to end discards.
She should be congratulated for tackling the discards issue in such a decisive way. Her speech today has made it clear, in no uncertain terms, that she is personally committed to ridding us of this policy.
It was simply not sustainable to pursue a management policy that forced Europe's fishermen to dump up to one million tonnes of perfectly healthy fish back into the sea, dead, annually, when 80% of EU fish stocks are either over exploited or under threat of imminent collapse.
Now we need to see how a new 'land-all' policy can be implemented, which must be designed to protect fish stocks, while at the same time enabling our fishermen to have a sustainable livelihood.
To read Commissioner Damanaki's speech today click here.
