WIREDGOV

iscard ban a key priority.

The new EU Fisheries Minister, Karmenu Vella, has been invited to Scotland to meet with government and industry to discuss the challenges of the landing obligation and how they can be addressed to ensure its effective implementation.

The landing obligation is also known as the discard ban and is part of the reformed Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). Instead of discarding some fish all of the catch must be landed and counted against quota. The discard ban is being phased in across Europe over a number years, starting in 2015 with pelagic fisheries like herring and mackerel.

Mr Vella, who was recently appointed, has been invited to witness the complexity of Scotland’s mixed fisheries at first hand. The very wide range of mixed fish stocks found in Scottish waters makes it extremely difficult to implement a discard ban within the confines of the EU’s single stock quota system. Boats which often fish for a mixture of different stocks will have to stop fishing once they have run out of their quota for any single stock, even though they may not have caught their quota for other stocks. That raises the possibility of boats not being able to fish their quotas and thereby to sustain their livelihoods.

Speaking at the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation annual dinner in Edinburgh Mr Lochhead said:

“If the landing obligation is fundamentally changing the way we fish, then it’s obvious to me that we have to rethink the fundamentals of how we manage fishing. I pledge to work with the industry; with the European institutions; with the NGOs; and with all other interests to make this obligation work for our fisheries.

“Last month I met with the outgoing Commissioner, Maria Damanaki, and stressed the need for Member States and the Commission to show joint leadership in developing - without delay - new fisheries management approaches to enable effective delivery of the discard ban while maintaining the viability of European fleets.

“At the moment we are trying to use tools, such as single species quotas, from the 1980s to solve modern-day complex 21st century issues. If we don't take the opportunity to find solutions that are fit for this decade we'll fail our fishermen and our stocks.

“Coming to Scotland would be a great opportunity for the new Commissioner to see and hear for himself the challenges involved in implementing a discard ban in a mixed fishery like we have in Scotland's waters.