Fish Discards

I, like many across the North-east and Scotland as a whole, have been closely following the talks in Brussels between Fisheries Ministers on reducing the wasteful discards which plague the industry.

Happily, talks finally concluded in the early hours of Wednesday morning with an agreement having been reached which promises workable measures to tackle the discarding of fish. The newly agreed upon discard rules - which will now be put before Members of the European Parliament for final negotiation - will be introduced between 2014 and 2019 as part of the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) and will improve the sustainable management of our valuable fisheries

The UN says Europe has the world's worst record of throwing away fish. Almost a quarter of all catches go back overboard dead because they are not the fish the crews intended to catch.

Throughout Europe, it is estimated that up to one million tonnes of fish are discarded every year which means if the EU had failed to act then hundreds of millions of pounds of fish would continue to be wasted over the next decade.

The Scottish Government has long been pushing for a ban on discards throughout the Common Fisheries Policy negotiations and Ministers had been calling on Europe to agree a policy which was both free of loopholes, and also workable for fishermen, especially in the North Sea where the complexities of mixed fisheries are very apparent.

No one in Scotland was in any doubt that the existing top-down, one-size-fits-all Common Fisheries Policy has failed for the last 30 years and that what was required was the development of a flexible, workable, and enforceable discards package which supports the shared goal of sustainable fisheries across Europe.

The Scottish Government, and in particular, Fisheries Minister Richard Lochhead MSP, are determined to ensure that the final policies both allow for our fishermen to access their legitimate fishing opportunities as well as support the future viability of the industry.

While significant progress has been made on reducing discards there is still a lot of work to be done in eradicating the practice and the Scottish Fishing Industry is playing its role and is continuing the trend of leading the way in devising technology to reduce the discarding of fish. Indeed, since 2007 Scottish discards of cod have almost halved. I was, therefore, proud to table a parliamentary motion last week commending the Scottish fishing industry for their development of pioneering trawls that reduce discards of white fish, including cod, allowing for more fishing days for those vessels equipped with the new nets.

Working in partnership with the Scottish Government, the new designs of prawn trawl have achieved reductions of over 60% of unwanted cod caught when compared to a standard trawl, with one of the designs having the ability to reduce the cod by-catch by 87%. Trials conducted by the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation have also shown that the new trawls can achieve a 67% reduction in unwanted haddock and 64% fall in whiting, as well as achieving the required reductions in the cod catch.

These advances not only conserve cod and other whitefish, but also had the added advantage of the associated increase in the number of days the vessels using the new trawls can go to sea.

Industry-driven innovation of this sort is crucial to the future of our nation and this development promises to have a positive effect on both the green efforts of the Scottish people and the Scottish economy. I will continue to support the fishing industry in their efforts to innovate and develop better ways of plying their trade, and hope that other industries follow their lead in combining conservation and business.