Fishermen in Scotland are being forced to throw away up to £40 million worth of fish every year, a special Discards Summit hosted by the Scottish Government in Edinburgh was told today.
European rules mean almost a million tonnes of fish are discarded in the North Sea every year.
It means that for every North Sea cod caught and landed by Scots fishermen another has to be thrown away.
The ‘scandalous’ level of waste was revealed by Fisheries Secretary Richard Lochhead to fishermen, scientists, conservationists and Norwegian Government representatives at the meeting called to work out how to reduce the dumping of marketable fish at sea.
The summit marks the start of a campaign by the Scottish Government to change some of the European rules which force trawlermen to throw away fish which could be landed and sold.
Mr Lochhead said:
“Discards are bad news. Bad news for fishermen, bad news for consumers and bad news for the environment.
“I am appalled and frustrated at the scandalous level of waste and the economic and environmental madness discards represent. In what other industry would it be acceptable to throw away so much of what is produced?
“Responsible and hard-working skippers are heartbroken because they have to throw away precious fish. That is why they, like me, are determined to tackle the scourge of discards.
“The scale of the problem beggars belief. Crazy European regulations mean that at a time of worldwide food shortages and higher food prices at home, our fishermen are having to throw away up to £40 million worth of fish for which there is a perfectly good market.
“We have an obligation to act and, hot on the heels of other innovative conservation measures adopted by our fishermen, we are once again ready to take the lead in Europe. Today’s summit shows there is a consensus on the need to tackle one of the biggest flaws in the Common Fisheries Policy.
“What we need to do now is find solutions. Clearly, given the current European rules and regulations we can’t do it alone but I am confident that Scotland can play a leading role in finding a way of allowing fishermen to land much more of the fish which they catch but are currently forced to discard. This would benefit fishermen, consumers and the environment.”
John Buchan, skipper of the fishing boat Fairline based in Peterhead, said:
“This is a golden opportunity to try and resolve this problem once and for all and I am pleased to see the Scottish Government showing concern and taking a lead. It is very frustrating for skippers and their crews when they have to discard beautiful, high-quality fish.”
BACKGROUND
There are a number of reasons why fishermen are currently having to discard large amounts of marketable fish, particularly North Sea cod. One important reason is the mismatch between the quota available for North Sea cod and the increased abundance of the stock, particularly the abundance of marketable fish (ie fish above the minimum landing size).
North Sea cod quotas are at historically very low levels and, despite last year’s modest increase in the North Sea cod quota, the increase in the quota available is not keeping pace with the increase in the abundance of the stock.
The Scottish Government believes that discards can be radically reduced if the fleet catches less fish overall but is able to land the marketable fish it is currently having to discard. Making sure the fleet catches less overall (as well as landing more) is an important part of the equation when it comes to reducing discards.
It can be achieved by a number of means, including: firstly, making fishing nets more selective so that only fish above the minimum landing sizes are caught; or, secondly, closing areas of the sea on a temporary basis where high abundances of certain species are found as has been happening under Scotland’s innovative real-time closures scheme; or, thirdly, through restricting the number of days which a boat is allowed to spend at sea.
Today’s summit in Edinburgh was hosted by the Scottish Government and attended by skippers, fishing associations, scientists from Fisheries Research Services (FRS), WWF and Norwegian Government representatives, among others.
The Scottish Government is making the issue of discards a key part of this year’s autumn negotiations on fish stocks and quotas. Mr Lochhead will be meeting Norwegian State Secretary Vidar Ulriksen (the Norwegian Deputy Fisheries Minister) next week to discuss the issue further and will also meet European Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg when he visits Scotland in mid-October. Discards will also be high up the agenda during the EU-Norway negotiations in November and at the EU Fisheries Councils in November and December.
Scotland has already shown a strong lead in identifying and adopting innovative conservation measures at sea. It introduced this year a voluntary real-time closures scheme, which sees fishermen avoiding areas where there is a high aggregation of cod, and secured historic agreement at last December’s Fisheries Council to run its own Conservation Credits scheme, which give boats more days at sea for taking part in conservation measures.
