July 7, 2017 — The following is a report written by Dr. Bill Karp, Affiliate Professor at University of Washington:
The Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) governs fisheries management in the European Union and is, very roughly equivalent to the Magnuson-Stevens Act in the US. The CFP is updated (reformed) every ten years. Article 15 of the 2013 reform is entitled “Landing Obligation” and includes the following text:
- All catches of species which are subject to catch limits and, in the Mediterranean, also catches of species which are subject to minimum sizes as defined in Annex III to Regulation (EC) No 1967/2006, caught during fishing activities in Union waters or by Union fishing vessels outside Union waters in waters not subject to third countries’ sovereignty or jurisdiction, in the fisheries and geographical areas listed below shall be brought and retained on board the fishing vessels, recorded, landed and counted against the quotas where applicable, except when used as live bait, in accordance with the following time-frames:
For further details (including exceptions) see http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32013R1380&rid=1
This “Landing Obligation” or discard ban was enacted in response to public concerns regarding perceived wasteful practices. It is being implemented over several years, initially in the more industrialized, large scale fisheries of northern Europe. Many concerns about practicability, cost, and other aspects have been raised and hotly debated in Europe, but implementation is proceeding.
As expected, this change in public policy has directly impacted many aspects of fishing, handling, processing, and marketing. The EU has funded several projects designed to encourage cross-sectoral engagement to improve gear selectivity, share information on avoiding unwanted catch (spatial, areal, etc.), encourage advances in handling, stimulate marketing opportunities, etc. Among these initiatives is a project called “DiscardLess” which is a four-year, multi-million Euro project. Through this project, researchers and stakeholders from throughout Europe and elsewhere are working together to reduce discards in European fisheries. The DiscardLess Consortium includes 31 partners from 20 countries.
Participants include fishermen, gear technologists, economists, handling, processing and marketing experts, and marine scientists. Work packages within the project focus on selectivity, avoidance, optimal use, ecosystem considerations, and policy aspects. Work began more than two years ago, and some important results are already apparent. For example, the Atlas, and Selectivity Manual provide broad-based and comprehensive information, much of which will be useful to US fishermen. See http://www.discardless.eu/ to download these products and learn more about the DiscardLess project. For an excellent short video about DiscardLess, see https://player.vimeo.com/video/206395350