26 September, 2008

THE £40 million worth of fish that Scottish boats are forced to throw overboard every year were put under the microscope at a ‘discards summit’ in Edinburgh yesterday (Thursday).

The fishing industry wants to see changes to European rules that lead to almost one million tonnes of healthy fish, mainly cod, dumped or discarded in the North Sea every year. About 100,000 tonnes of the total is dumped by Scottish boats.

Under the Common Fisheries Policy fishermen can be prosecuted if they attempt to land juvenile fish or more of any species than their quotas allow.

The summit was hosted by the Scottish Government, which was launching its campaign to change the rules that force fishermen to throw away catches that could be landed and sold.

Shetland Fisherman’s Association chairman Leslie Tait was at the meeting and said though there was much discussion, no solid solution to the problem had been found.

“We were discussing the problem of discards in general and cod in particular. There have been no decisions made about what to do about it. There are some ideas, but to be honest the problem is that big now it is difficult to find a solution to it,” he said.

Fisheries minister Richard Lochhead said he was appalled at the level of waste and “the economic and environmental madness discards represent”.

He said: “Responsible and hard-working skippers are heartbroken because they have to throw away precious fish. That is why they, like me, are determined to tackle the scourge of discards.

"The scale of the problem beggars belief. Crazy European regulations mean that at a time of worldwide food shortages and higher food prices, our fishermen have to throw away up to £40 million worth of fish for which there is a perfectly good market.”

Mr Lochhead said that solutions needed to be found and though Scotland could not go it alone, it could play a major part in working out a way forward.

“I am confident that Scotland can play a leading role in finding a way of allowing fishermen to land much more of the fish which they catch, but are currently forced to discard. This would benefit fishermen, consumers and the environment,” he said.

Scottish MEP Struan Stevenson said that he fully supported Scottish fishermen in their efforts to bring an end to the “horrendous practice” of discards and believes that the Norwegian model should be followed.

“I firmly believe that we should follow the same system as our neighbours in Norway and insist that all fish caught at sea should be brought ashore and sold either for the dinner table or to the processing sector for fish meal,” he said.