Fish discards ban 'may be diluted'

26 February 2013 Last updated at 02:38 ET By Roger Harrabin Environment analyst

Plans for a total ban on the practice of discarding fish at sea are to go before Europe's fisheries ministers, with some fearing they will be diluted.

An outright discards ban is favoured by the European Commission and parliament, but it is being resisted by France, Spain and others.

Ministers will consider a compromise text, that a Commission source described as "acceptable".

It would delay fisheries reform beyond the current proposal of 2016-2019.

It would also allow maybe 7% of fish to be discarded, exempt some species from the ban altogether, and give fishing crews extra catch quotas for an interim period.

It would also allow blue whiting, one of the most abundant stocks of the North East Atlantic, to be dumped if it is inadvertently caught. Boarfish may also be exempt.

Some ministers are striving to soften the provisions of the reform package to protect their fleets from sudden change.

Hi-tech nets

But the Fisheries Commissioner, Maria Damanaki, urged ministers not to compromise.

"The politicians must listen to what the public is telling them," she said. "The public does not want fish to be just thrown away."

She said all caught fish should be landed; if they were of low value, they should be turned into fish meal.

The Irish Fisheries Minister, Simon Coveney, who is chairing the meeting, said: "It is imperative that European Fisheries Ministers collectively take this progressive but challenging decision now and co-operate in agreeing appropriate and effective measures to eliminate discards with ambitious timelines."

But he is obliged at the meeting to find a joint position that the Council can negotiate with the Commission and parliament - and compromise will be difficult as several nations, including the UK, consider than any slipping from a total ban would be wrong.

The "progressive" nations fear that any discussion of exempt species would open the door for further exemptions.

In a review of global discarding, the UN noted that the north-east Atlantic had the highest discard level in the world, estimated at 1.3 million tonnes - the majority attributed to the EU. The Commission estimates that 23% of all fish caught by EU vessels are discarded.

Discussions at the Fisheries Council may last into the night, although on a less contentious note, ministers are likely to re-commit to better technology to prevent unwanted fish being caught in the first place

Follow Roger on Twitter @rharrabin

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21584863#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

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