UK bids to scrap rules forcing fishermen to discard healthy fish

Fisheries Minister Richard Benyon has pledged to protect Britain’s coastal communities by winning back new powers for the regions over fishing policy from Brussels and creating sustainable fish stocks for generations to come.

Mr Benyon heads to Europe this morning to begin crucial discussions over reform of the controversial Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), which has been widely derided for failing to protect either fishing fleets or fish stocks and for introducing the hugely unpopular concept of “discards” which have been lobbied against by TV chef Hugh Fearnely-Whittingstall.

Speaking to the media in advance of his trip yesterday, Mr Benyon said he would fight to end discards and dismissed rumours the UK Government is looking to shy away from an outright ban.

“Right through this process we have been absolutely clear – we want to see an elimination of discards and we have worked hard throughout to achieve that,” he said.

“We think a discard ban for pelagic [open ocean] fish could be in place by 2014. That would depend on these negotiations progressing, but that’s an early start.

“And we are in discussion with our devolved governments to try and work for an early as date as possible, as ambitious a target as possible, for white fish stocks.

“We are absolutely at the radical end of pushing for reform on this.”

Describing the CFP as a “broken policy”, Mr Benyon said the new round of negotiations marks a “once in a decade opportunity to deliver rapid reform”.

He criticised the “absurd level of micro-management” that currently sees EU Ministers in Brussels negotiating the minutiae of rules over net sizes, thousands of miles away from the fishermen who will be affected, and pledged to return more power to the regions.

“These are things that are best decided locally, and it is a manifest failing of this system that it tries to do it centrally,” he said.

But the most important issue of all, he said, was to restore fish stocks to sustainable levels.

“This is not just about today’s generation of fishermen,” the Tory Minister said. “This is about encouraging their sons, their grandsons to go into the industry. There’s plenty of economic evidence that fisheries could be so much more valuable around our coastline if we can get stocks up to sustainable levels.”