Discarding in fishing: making sense of a complex issue - February 2009

Summary

This note explains what discards are, why they occur, their significance and what can be done about them. The idea came from the Discard Action Group, one of the ‘issue forums’ that Seafish runs in order to resolve problems affecting the whole seafood supply chain. This group was established to start a cross-industry dialogue in response to the European Commission’s proposals to minimise or ban discarding. This is an updated edition of February 2008 briefing note. Discarding has moved up the political agenda again: in a global context European discards are still disproportionately high; the Commission is further developing its policy aimed at minimising discards across Europe; and the wasteful nature of discarding is increasingly seen as unacceptable throughout the supply chain. This briefing note includes an appendix that describes the initiatives introduced over the last couple of years, many initiated by the fishing industry, in order to reduce discarding in UK fisheries.

Author

• Phil MacMullen,
• Karen Green

Publication date

01 February 2009