Through the Gaps! - Newlyn Fishing News: DAG Cornwall UK fish commercial fishing fish cooking and art

Tuesday 2 April 2019

Fishermen's representatives head for today's Discard Action Group meeting.

Today's Discard Action Group meeting is at Friends House in London and will run from 10.00am to 4.00pm.

Stay in touch with the meeting on Twitter using the hashtag #SeafishDAG

AM Compliance with the landing obligation

Three months in - how is 2019 going? Mike Park, SWFPA and Jaswinder Kaur, Defra.
MSC consideration of the Landing Obligation in fishery assessment. Tim Davies, Marine Stewardship Council.
Discussion between Government and the supply chain on evidencing full compliance with the LO. Jaswinder Kaur, Defra.

AM Ways to evidence, map and monitor compliance and aid spatial avoidance.

Electronic monitoring as a compliance tool. Norman Fletcher, Marine Scotland.
Norwegian use of reference fleets. Tom Clegg, Norwegian Marine Research Institute.
Shetland Fishermen’s Association paper on reference fleets. Simon Collins, SFA.
A new mapping app to identify discard hotspots. Julia Calderwood. Marine Institute.

PM Showcasing how far industry has come in improving selectivity.

Overview of DiscardLess. Kenny Coull, SWFPA.
Showcase/case studies of new selectivity devices and how they are being used. The session will include recent video footage and will be an opportunity to quiz the skippers themselves. We will have footage of David Milne, Jimmy Buchan, James Stephen and Paul Robertson.

Thursday 11 October 2018

Presentations from the Discard Action Group meeting 10th October 2018.

The Discard Action Group is a forum for the discussion of industry-wide problems relating to discards.

The Discard Action Group (DAG) was set up by Seafish in 2009 in light of the many initiatives being adopted by the fishing industry to reduce discards. It is a prime example of an integrated, interdisciplinary, co-operative approach to the issue, and is the only UK cross-industry group addressing the discards issue from all perspectives.

The group is indicative of the whole seafood supply chain with representatives from the catching sector, environmental non-governmental organisations, legislators, regulators, technologists, scientists, retailers, foodservice and, where appropriate, the media. It is a key forum to allow individual interests to have a voice in the debate and to explore means by which discarding can be reduced to the minimum level practicable.

The group is chaired by Mike Park, Seafish Board member and Chief Executive, Scottish White Fish Producers Association Limited. The group meets twice a year.

The Discard Action Group Terms of Reference can be read here.

All the presentations and minutes from DAG meetings are below. We have archived presentations from previous meetings and the minutes prior to 2013 but these are available from Karen Green.

The last meeting was on Wednesday 10 October 2018 in London. The presentations are below and the minutes will follow in due course. The next meeting will be in Feb/March 2019.

Seafish is undertaking a lot of work with regards to the introduction of the Landing Obligation (which will be introduced gradually, between 2015 and 2019 for all commercial fisheries (species under TACs, or under minimum sizes) in European waters. We are providing valuable services to industry and government and our coordination role in communicating about ongoing projects is limiting duplication of work. Key work areas for Seafish are: economic implications; gear selectivity; the Seafish Discard Action Group; briefings and guidance; outreach; a project to assess the impact of the LO on the UK supply chain; sectoral support; and marketing and communications. See

For more information about the Discard Action Group contact Karen Green. To be added to the DAG mailing list to receive our monthly news update and details on the meetings please register here.