Young’s Seafood believes there should be a complete ban on discarding (ie. throwing dead fish landed by fishing vessels back into the sea). This practice is common in European fisheries but is a senseless waste of resources and a barrier to proper fisheries management.

We recognise that this represents a huge challenge to the European seafood industry under current regulatory and market conditions and that significant changes in governance and infrastructure will be required. However, we do not believe it is possible to implement truly effective management regimes unless all fish landed are properly recorded – and this cannot be achieved whilst discarding continues.

We support the initiative of the EU to introduce a policy to reduce unwanted by-catches and eliminate discards in European fisheries (March 2007) and fully endorse the impact assessment and consultation process designed to bring this to reality. We are also engaged with the Seafish Industry Authority group which is working to develop practical discard reduction proposals and promote best practice within UK fisheries.

Improved scientific data is an important precursor to the regulatory change which will be required to achieve a fishery environment with zero discarding. We therefore engage with scientists, fishery managers and fishermen to develop a greater common understanding of this subject. We particularly support research into enhanced technical conservation measures at sea to minimise the wider ecological impact of fishing activities. We also encourage wider use of research to provide better understanding of individual fisheries - such as environmental mapping and consideration of factors such as species migration and spawning activity.

Unless significant and far reaching scientific, regulatory and infrastructure enhancements are developed, the biologically destructive practice of discarding dead fish at sea will remain an accepted industry practice. Young’s believes that greater vision is required in order to achieve a more selective fishing industry which can remain viable, profitable and sustainable whilst landing the whole catch.

www.youngsseafood.co.uk