Malta has made it clear it disagrees with a European Commission proposal to ban all fish discards across the EU.
Joining his counterparts from several member states, including France, Spain and Cyprus, Resources Minister George Pullicino told a meeting of the EU’s Fisheries Council in Brussels last week that not all fish species and fishermen should be put in the same basket.
Discards are the portion of a catch of which is not retained on board during operations and is returned, often dead or dying, to the sea.
The practice of discarding is driven by factors. Fish which are discarded are often unmarketable species or those fishermen are not allowed to land, for instance due to restrictions.
Mr Pullicino argued that fishing methods used by Maltese fishermen were different from those of other countries and these differences should be taken into consideration when drawing up such policies.
Malta believed anti-discard measures were needed as part of management plans and there should be no requirement to land species which had a high survival rate when thrown back into the sea, Mr Pullicino said.
“It should be made possible to sell juvenile fish for products for human consumption and juvenile fish should not end up as fish meal,” he argued.
As part of a major reform of EU fisheries management, the Commission last July proposed banning the practice of throwing unwanted fish overboard. Instead, fishermen would have to land all commercial fish caught.
According to Brussels, this approach will lead to more reliable data on fish stocks and act as an incentive for fishermen to avoid unwanted catches by using selective fishing gear.
However, following this week’s discussion at ministerial level, it appears the Commission will have no other option but to scale down its proposal, particularly in the light of the complexity of the issue and the difficulties that a discard ban would create for fishermen.
Most countries, though with slight differences, argued for a significant reduction in discards, which could go as far as a ban on certain fisheries.
Admitting that ending discards would take time and money, EU Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki argued for a step by step approach to doing so.