The European Union Commission’s preoccupation with eliminating discards risks fishermen being saddled with unworkable measures that will be hard to change once they are in place.
This is the warning from a fishermen’s leader following European Union fisheries commissioner Maria Damanaki spelling out last week the Commission’s plans to help fishermen to implement a discards ban.
Damanaki said the Common Fisheries Policy reform aims to give fishermen “adequate support” for the changes needed to gradually phase out discards.
Measures include financial support for testing more selective gears and techniques and for purchasing already tested ones so as to avoid catching undersized or unwanted fish in the first place.
