Fish dumping campaign wins EU concessions

A UK campaign against dumping dead fish back in the sea won the full support of the European Commission yesterday.

EU Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki, speaking in Brussels on the problem of so-called “discards”, praised the publicity generated by “Hugh’s Fish Fight”, lead by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and endorsed by celebrities such as Richard Branson, Stephen Fry and Ricky Gervais.

Pressure has been mounting for years for changes to EU rules which are blamed for encouraging dumping on a massive scale.

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The Common Fisheries Policy rules impose catch quota limits on fishing fleets, which are not allowed to land their bycatch: non-quota fish species netted accidentally.

The so-called discard is thrown back, dead, into the sea.

The Commission has already signalled it wants to end the waste by proposing a ban under CFP reforms due out later this year. But some fishing sectors say a total ban is too much, too soon.

Yesterday afternoon, addressing fishing industry representatives and lobby groups, the Commissioner said the discard issue had prompted more than half a million Britons to sign a letter to her seeking such a ban.

She went on: “I know that many among you are happy about this UK initiative and about the publicity that Hugh’s Fish Fight has brought on the issue of discarding fish.

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“But some among you think that the commission is showing a knee-jerk reaction to a media hype in the UK when we say that we need to tackle this problem of discards once and for all.”

The Commissioner said she understood that some wanted to go at a slower pace, gradually decreasing discards.

She said: “But there is also something you have to understand and that is that times have changed. We don’t have time. Our stocks are in a difficult position. The great majority of our fishermen, especially the coastal fishermen, are complaining that there is no fish in the sea.

“We are also faced with strong public opinion, consumers who are very well informed and want to know that they are not supporting wasteful practices when they buy fish,” she said.

According to the celebrity chef, around half the fish currently caught in the North Sea has to be thrown back overboard, dead, and he has so far had almost 700,000 people sign up to his campaign.