EU Commissioner of Fisheries Maria Damanaki has agreed to make her targets and deadlines flexible to eradicate the practice of discarding in favour of a phased approach and per fisheries rather than per species.
During a meeting of the Council of Fisheries Ministers of the EU, Damanaki was willing to co-operate with the request by member states who expressed their support for combating fish discards but they requested that the real situation of each country and of each fishery should be taken into account.
Spain, France, Italy, Ireland and other delegations rejected the application of a "standardised" approach for all the species because they see that there are very different situations in terms of fisheries, techniques and fishing grounds, which must be taken into account.
The participating states also proposed a timetable should be set as part of multi-year management plans of the catches. The commissioner accepted the claims if countries promote a "substantial reduction of discards in the short term" and encourage selective fishing methods and pilot fishing projects, reported EFE.
"It is clear discards can not be eliminated only by introducing an obligation to land all the fish," said Damanaki. "What is needed is to fish more selectively and we already have funding, under the current Fisheries Fund to switch to more selective gear."
Damanaki also launched a request to the European scientific committee to provide clear reports to assess the status of each fishery. The aim is that experts should mention the fisheries with high survival level for which an exemption to the non-discard policy can be considered. It is also requested the Scientific Committee to identify the most selective gear, which could be encouraged.
Moreover, the commissioner noted the need to design an intelligent use of the new fund for fishing, set at €6.5 billion (US$8.9 billion) for the 2014-2020 period. The aid could support the implementation of "pilot programmes" to test the effectiveness of more selective gear and also to include producers' organisations in a more active way through "co-operation, control and compliance"", Europa Press reported.
In addition, Damanaki said the multi-annual management plans can not condition the implementation of the discard ban and urged the Council and the European Parliament to overcome the differences that are blocking the plans, which affect the fishing for anchovy or horse-mackerel.
As for the Mediterranean, where there are no Total Allowable Catches and practically everything is landed, the Commissioner stated that the market for the fishing of juvenile specimens cannot be encouraged.
FIS
