Fish discarding ban shunned by MPs

[Elton]

Fishermen should be allowed to continue discarding edible fish at sea, despite public pressure to stop the wasteful practice, a group of MPs has urged.

 

More details here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012...ban-shunned-mps

[cleeclive]

More details here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012...ban-shunned-mps

This response is inevitable, and it would have been a total knee-jerk reaction to try and ban it overnight and impossible to police. It is OK to bring in legislation but if you cannot police it effectively there is little point in having the legislation. A phased approach is the only way forward and this will be a 20-30 year project to fully achieve its aims.

With a bit of luck there wont be an EU or a Common Fisheries Policy in 20-30 years to worry about the way things are going in the financial markets.

 

So long as you have got fish quotas you will have fish discards, and that will never change. Hopefully we can learn to manage discards more effectively within the quota system.