British fishermen have thrown away enough fish, from just one cod stock, to support 711 jobs for 46 years, according to new research from the New Economics Foundation (NEF) think-tank.
The study found that since 1963 GBP2.7 billion (US$4.4 billion) worth of cod has been discarded in the North Sea, English Channel and Skagerrak because the fish were unwanted, not profitable enough or did not conform to fishing regulations. Of these, UK fishermen threw away nearly GBP935 million (US$1.54 billion) worth of fish, which would have supported 711 additional UK jobs.
According to the NEF study, there are benefits to be made from landing fish that would have otherwise been thrown away, but that much bigger benefits would come if fish were given more time to grow by fishing more selectively. If discards had not occurred during this period, and left in the sea the cod population would have been an average 13.2 percent larger year-on-year, leading to an increase in profits and jobs supported by this stock. The use of completely selective gear would have spared the small cod, which given time to grow could have weighed up to 9.26 million tonnes, almost five times the weight at which they were actually discarded (2.14 million tonnes).
"Everyone can see that discards are hugely wasteful, but far more wastage comes from overfishing: taking more than what the oceans can produce. Action to end discards must be accompanied with action to restore fish stocks," said Rupert Crilly, author of the NEF report. "Avoiding discards in the first place is more important than the creation of markets for unwanted species.".
The NEF criticised the European Commission's proposals, presented on July 13, to reform the EU's Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). The EC proposals contain provisions for the elimination of unwanted catches of some commercially valuable "quota" species. However the NEF accused it of taking a "piecemeal approach" that failed to address the problem of widespread discarding of non-quota species.
