Managing discards
Not all fisheries produce discards; some are completely 'clean', while others may even discard more fish than they retain. There are many reasons for discarding, including:
- Market conditions. Fish may be discarded because they are of no economic value, low economic value, or damaged and therefore of a reduced value.
- Management regulations. Fish may be discarded because they are below the legal minimum landing size (MLS), restricted by a quota, or non-marketable because of catch composition restrictions.
Both of these sets of conditions can change by the season or fishing area, even within one fishery. Assessing how much of a problem discarding poses, and to whom, can be complex. Discarding fish at sea was considered wasteful, even though discarded fish were taken into account in estimates of stock sizes and allowable catch limits. Previously, it was illegal to land undersized fish and fish for which a vessel had no quota, and therefore these fish had to be discarded at sea.
There is no doubt that the discarding of fish wastes resources and there was an urgent need to implement measures to reduce the level of discards. Seafish, along with the fishing industry, has been developing new selective technologies and net-based fishing activities for many years to reduce unwanted bycatch. When the EU's Common Fisheries Policy was reformed in 2012, one of the main changes was to eliminate the practice of throwing unwanted catches overboard while at sea.
As a result the landing obligation (or discard ban as it is often referred to) was introduced at the beginning of 2015 for pelagic species. This means that all vessels catching pelagic species, such as mackerel and herring, have had to land all pelagic fish caught, as required in the relevant discard plan since 1 January 2015. The landing obligation was introduced for certain demersal species (from 1 January 2016), starting with key species such as haddock, sole and plaice, depending on which sea area a vessel is fishing in and what type of fishing gear is used. By 1 January 2019 the obligation to land all catches of quota species will be fully implemented.
Seafish has gathered together a range of information, analyses and case studies, into this 'resource centre' to help those in the UK fleet and onshore sector to navigate the different facets of the landing obligation. You will also find links to guides and further information. To find out about the regulatory framework and what the European Commission, UK Government, Seafish and the fishing industry are doing to combat discards, view:
To keep informed about catching sector issues relating to technical, innovation, automation and (scientific) fisheries management developments, The Fisheries Management and Innovation Group is a forum for discussion and sharing knowledge.
Further information
The Fisheries Management and Innovation Group (formerly the Discard Action Group) was originally set up as a forum for the discussion of industry-wide problems relating to discards.
The remit of the group is now broader and as well as covering discards it also now covers technical, innovation, automation and (scientific) fisheries management issues relating to the catching sector.
Contacts
For more information about The Fisheries Management and Innovation Group contact Karen Green.
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