MEP launches scheme to help stop discards

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A South West MEP has launched a "Don't Ditch the Fish" campaign which proposes a solution to the problem of fish discards and the wider Common Fisheries Policy.

 

Conservative Julie Girling says her ideas are aimed at incentivising fishermen, giving them freedom and flexibility, rewarding best practice and stopping the number of fish wastefully discarded into our seas.

 

Under the current Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) fishermen are forced to dump dead fish back into the water if the catch exceeds tight quota restrictions.

 

The MEP has been a strong campaigner against the practice, alongside Westcountry chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and his supporters.

 

Ms Girling, who is a substitute member on the Fisheries Committee, has been working with Client Earth, an environmental legal practice, and with the Marine Conservation Society to establish a "sensible plan" for the future.

 

The proposal suggests fishermen should be allocated an annual credits allowance, with each species of fish having a "credits value." Fishermen would deduct the credits value of each catch from their allowance.

 

Fishermen would be able to catch any combination of fish as long as they do not exceed their annual credits allowance.

 

Ms Girling said: "The Common Fisheries Policy is Europe's shameful secret. It is vital that we return control of fishing policy to regions and stop making micro decisions about it in Brussels.

 

"My 'Don't Ditch the Fish' plan aims to ensure fishermen do not need to discard or worry about going over quota as vulnerable fish – such as those in recovery programmes like North Sea cod – will have a higher credits rating than resilient fish from healthy stocks such as North Sea mackerel.

 

"So fishermen will be incentivised to target the mackerel and to try and avoid cod to maintain a healthy credits balance. Immature fish will carry a higher credits value than mature fish from the same stock.

 

On Wednesday EU Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki outlined long-awaited plans to tear up three decades of the CFP, including potentially handing control over restrictions to member states.

 

Leading fisherman in the Westcountry called the proposals, due to take effect in 2012, "a step in the right direction."

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