Fish Discards Battle Catches On
Brussels, 31st May 2011
MEPs were served up a taste of the sea today as Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall brought his BAFTA winning 'Fish Fight' to Brussels. Organisers were not dampened by the weather as the European Parliament played host to an outdoor fish restaurant, boosting a long-standing campaign to end the practice of dumping perfectly edible fish overboard.
Over one million tons of healthy fish discarded each year in EU waters are dumped dead back into the sea. The fish is perfectly edible or could be used for the fishmeal industry.
I welcome the attention that Mr Fearnley-Whittingstall has brought to the issue and continue to monitor the impact of the Common Fisheries Policy on the region's fishing fleets in communities such as Whitby and Bridlington. But I'm also concerned about the impact of any legislation not only on the fishermen, but on Yorkshire's fishing industry as a whole, such as the fish processing centre in Grimsby.
The European Commission will bring forward formal proposals to reform the CFP later in the summer. EU Fisheries Commissioner Damanaki has already announced (in early March) that she will introduce a ban on discards in phases, starting with pelagic species and eventually covering the rest over three years.
We also badly need changes that to the management of fisheries so that decisions are made on a regional level. That way they can be tailored to every region and fishery based on the involvement of fishermen, scientists and stakeholders.
