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.

PDF versions of the presentations from 10 October 2018 meeting:

The landing obligation and the path to compliance. Barrie Deas, NFFO
Defra update on discard plans. Stella Bartolini Cavicchi, Defra
Impact of North East Atlantic Multi Annual Plans. Line Groth Rasmussen, DH MARE C1
Discards survival probabilities of flatfish and rays in North Sea pulse-trawl fisheries. VisNed/Cefas
REM scheme in the North Sea and scientific data collection. Martin Arris, Marine Management Organisation
Perspective on the introduction of cameras. Helen McLachlan, World Wildlife Fund
The Take Up of Selective Gears by Industry. Mike Montgomerie, Seafish
Overcoming Economic Barriers: The case for economic data collection. Ana Witteveen, Seafish

Integrated ecosystem analysis in Irish waters; Providing the context for ecosystem-based fisheries management

Highlights

• Provides an expert-driven integrated ecosystem assessment useful for management.

• Places fisheries in the context of wider anthropogenic pressures.

• Top ranked pressures highlight most important linkages for management action.

• Highlights areas of threat to Marine Strategy Framework Directive targets.

• First independent use and critique of the ‘ODEMM’ approach.

Fishing has long been considered the most impactful human activity on the marine ecosystem. To adopt ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM) requires consideration of all human impacts, not just those of fishing. The ODEMM (Options for Delivering Ecosystem-based Marine Management) approach provides an integrated ecosystem assessment that is a flexible, cost-efficient and expert-based. 

The framework traces the sectors affecting the marine environment, the pressures they create, and the ecological characteristics affected. This research presents the first application of the ODEMM framework outside of the ODEMM project, completed for Ireland’s marine waters. The assessment places fishing in the context of other anthropogenic pressures and highlights areas of threat to Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) descriptors. From 1874 impact chains, just 59 (44 of which were attributed to the fishing sector) account for 64% of the Total Risk score, highlighting areas for management action with a high risk-reduction return. Of the sectors, The analysis showed Waste Water to have the highest average risk of all sectors, followed by Land-based Industry, Fishing and then Shipping. In terms of total risk, Fishing was the most important sector, due to its high connectance to many ecosystem components and widespread influence, even though many of the impacts are relatively low and the components impacted show a high degree of recoverability. 

Litter was identified as the pressure with the highest total risk scores (average and summed) due to its persistence, and widespread reach. Among the ecological characteristics, deep water habitats that have low resilience to pressures showed the highest average total risk, yet the highest impact risks were for ecological characteristics that were closer to land and were impacted more frequently. These conclusions highlight the importance of context and interpretation in the analysis. 

The impact chains were further linked through to the MSFD environmental status descriptors, indicating Biological Diversity and Food Webs as the descriptors most at risk, followed by Sea-floor Integrity. As the first independent application of the method, issues arose with interpretation of some categories and definitions, and some modifications are discussed.

Overall, this has proven a valuable exercise for helping to identify management priorities. The analysis presented provides useful context for EBFM and a basis for decision making and trade-off analysis for Ireland. The ODEMM framework employed offers a comprehensive, adaptable, globally-applicable tool to guide ecosystem management and the decision-making process, by highlighting risk areas and priorities for management action and research.

For more details go here or contact Anthony Knights at University of Plymouth @benthicecol

Mid week market in Newlyn.

After every trip of up to 10 days the crew of a beam trawler have to repair the trawls...

one man who won't be repairing any more gear...

is the shellfishing legend that is Francis Harris who is seem here stowing his buoy ropes and hanging his oilskins up for the last time...

inside the fish market there is a trip of beam trawl fish from the Billy Rowney...

which includes monk tails...

and megrim sole...

the hands that pick out otoliths in order for Cefas to age each fish sampled...

belong to Maria who is nor doubt smiling because, after a 3am start she is on her last box of fish to be sampled...

from the triple rigger, Elisabeth Veronique who also had a good shot of Dorys in the trip...

the handliners are still getting good trips out of the mackerel in the bays...

while the beam trawlers like the Billy Rowney . put ashore ground fish like thornback ray...

tub gurnards...

and cod...

the netters Govenek of Ladram and  Charisma ..

landed good shots of hake...

while the inshore boats landed a few boxes of prime red mullet...

and brill...

it's back to the hooks for young Andrew on the punt Benediction now that the lobster season is over...

it's definitely Newlyn Harbour, says so on the box...

and it's still dark enough outside...

as two buyers discuss the price...

 of fish during the auction...

this time last year half the market floor space would have been taken up by 400kg tubs of cuttlefish which is what these scales have been installed for - as yet, no significant trips of cuttles have been landed this season...

fish sold now bound out at speed...

just in case anyone knows the whereabouts...

of the owners of said vessel...

the day dawns...

on the Ocean of Invisible Voices...

crabber, work in progress...

netter, Stelissa under the lamplight...

stacked on the quay, newly made parlour pots wait to go to sea...

ever-ready Mollie and Ivor Dent and Ivan Ellen...

another crabber work in progress...

all set for the next tide for Joe...

working boat...

fish from all over the UK arrives at Newlyn on a daily basis...

and much of it is still exported despite a growing internal market - come Brexit...

drilling for hot rocks, the Jubilee Pool will soon be heated by geothermic energy which was pioneered just down the road at Rosemanowes Quarry..

early morning in Penzance harbour...

with the Battery Rockers swimmers taking to swimming in the harbour...

 this morning away from the white water off Battery Rocks their usual haunt.

The Discard Action Group meets again today.

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 E: Karen Green.

The last meeting was on Tuesday 13 February 2018 in London. The next meeting will be on 10 October 2018 in London.

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 

A full breakdown of Seafish's involvement with the implementation of the Landing Obligation is here:

Landing Obligation

How to introduce the landing obligation is one of the most difficult issues facing the fishing industry under the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy.

In 2009 the Commission launched a wide-ranging debate on the way that EU fisheries are managed. The new CFP came into effect 1 January 2014. A key element of the reformed CFP is the progressive elimination of discards in EU fisheries through the introduction of a landing obligation. This is being introduced progressively from 1 January 2015.

This constitutes a new regime in European fisheries management and making this work for every part of the fleet will require a great deal more work - for both industry and government - to prepare to implement the landing obligation.

There are a number of documents and links below which explain generally what is meant by the landing obligation and the legislative framework, and the issues it is raising for the seafood industry.

General guidance

At EU and regional level

• Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF)
• North Sea Advisory Council
• North Western Waters Advisory Council
• Pelagic Advisory Council
• European Parliament Research Service briefing - Adapting EU fisheries to the landing obligation
• EU Guidance
• DiscardLess

Discard Atlases:

• Discard Atlas of North Sea Demersal Fisheries 2014
• Discard Atlas North Western Waters Demersal Fisheries 2014
• Discard Atlas North Western Waters Pelagic and Industrial Fisheries 2014

 General guidance at UK level:

• MMO/Defra
• Marine Scotland
• DAERA
• Welsh Government

We have also created a number of pages which look at more specific aspects of the implementation of the landing obligation.

• Pelagic Landing Obligation
• Demersal Landing Obligation
• Onshore Implications

Seafish Best Practice Guidance for Assessing the Financial Performance of Fishing Gear

Although there has been significant investment in new gear design, and research and analysis of gear effectiveness, very few studies have addressed the financial impacts of the Landing Obligation for vessel operators. Uncertainty surrounding the costs and benefits of gear modifications may make vessel owners reluctant to make gear changes due to potential losses in time and revenue during trial periods. Before gear modifications are adopted, it is important to assess the financial effectiveness of gear modifications to make sure fishing operations remain profitable with new gear.

Seafish has developed Best Practice Guidance for industry and scientist-led gear trials to help vessel owners choose the right gear for their business. Seafish has also developed a Financial Assessment Spread sheet for vessel owners and trial supervisors (to use alongside the Best Practice Guidance), to provide a straightforward, standardised way for users to collect, analyse and compare gear trial results and assess the financial effectiveness of fishing modifications.

Seafish Landing Obligation panel in Malta, February 2016.

Seafish facilitated a Landing Obligation panel at the Seaweb Seafood Summit in Malta on Monday 1 February 2016. The aim of this session was to share the impacts of the LO on fisheries and fishers and to describe some of the tools that have been developed to minimize any adverse impacts. The session was facilitated by Mike Park, Scottish White Fish Producers Association. There were three additional speakers: Liane Veitch, ClientEarth; Hazel Curtis, Seafish; and Helen Duggan, Seafish. The presentations can be downloaded below.

Seafish briefing notes can be found below. For further information contact Karen Green

Landing Obligation conference Twitter feed

Tweets by LIFEplatformEU

Joint action is better than a few loud and lone voices.

Or worse still, take recognise the individual and ignore any kind of consensus - which is what has driven politics since the 1970s and where the phrase "there is no such thing as society" came from.

It's 1979 and hundreds of Newlyn fishermen head to St Peter's church to hear George Lawry and others discuss what action can be taken to protest at fishermen from other EU countries like France, Belgium and Holland fishing inside the 12 mile limit. Among the speakers was Watty Andrews, Scottish purser skipper who was willing to use his and other pursers to blockade the port in protest...

the fight was eventually taken to the highest platform in the land!  It's always worth remembering what can be achieved when acting together.

Brexit - Breton fishermen expect the worst.

Elected and members of representative bodies of Breton fisheries were present, Saturday, in Quimper, Breizhmer conference 06/10/2018.

The Brexit deadline is approaching and the fishermen are still in the fog. This Saturday, in Quimper, the meeting of the fishing and aquaculture sector in Brittany was an opportunity to discuss the major risks expected next year for Breton fleets deprived of access to British waters.

"A hard Brexit is looming. How to anticipate it, what consequences? ". The first paper debated this Saturday at the BreizhMer conference by the fishing and aquaculture sector in Brittany wanted to know more about the negotiations between the European Union and the United Kingdom. On the other hand, the consequences of the recovery of their exclusive economic maritime zone by the British, which could be catastrophic for the Breton fishing industry, were illustrated. It is no coincidence that 92% of fishermen across the Channel voted for Brexit (according to academic Mark Wise, quoted on Sunday by France Inter). They consider that the interests of British fishermen were originally sold to facilitate entry into the European Union.


"A vital issue"

It is Jacques Pichon, director of the fishing company La Houle de Saint-Guénolé (120 employees), which was the most concrete. "50% of the activity of our eleven offshore trawlers is in British waters. In Saint-Guénolé, we are the last fishing company present, we make live the activities of landing, wholesale, engineering workshops. The stakes are therefore vital. If there is a failure of negotiations, the first thing we will do to save our business will be to postpone it to other fishing areas. Then there will be the problem of allocation of fishing rights. There will be boat lay-ups, a drop in the supply by auction, job losses "(*).

Uncertainty

The worst, a "hard" Brexit, is not yet certain. Philippe de Lambert des Granges, Brexit project director at the Maritime Fisheries and Aquaculture Department, emphasized that we were heading towards a "negotiated Brexit" before the deadline of 30 March 2019.

This would mean that a "withdrawal agreement" from the UK would be worked on for a transitional period of two years until 2021, when a treaty of relationship between the two entities would be signed. Currently, this "negotiated Brexit" is still bogged down on the issue of Northern Ireland.

Breton trawlers often make use of UK ports like Newlyn..

Shellfish growers too

"At the Breton level, there were 170 boats that at least fished a kilo of fish in British waters," said Philippe de Lambert des Granges. At the national level, they are 520. Of the seven European Union countries concerned by British waters, this activity represents nearly one billion turnover. A closure of these waters would therefore have a very important economic impact with less input (26,000 tonnes at stake estimated at the French level), less trading, trading and ultimately employment ". And not only for the fishing industry. "We have a lot of exchanges with Northern Ireland and Scotland, mainly on oysters," said Philippe Le Gal, chairman of the regional committee for shellfish farming in southern Brittany.

Loser in all cases

The challenge is to limit the damage for the Breton sectors. "Even with a negotiated Brexit, there will be a renegotiation of European quotas, says Jacques Pichon. This will involve new losses for French fishermen, while there is already a shortage of some stocks. This loss of quota will also affect the inshore fishery.

The coming years are therefore very dangerous for the Breton fishermen. No wonder the Breton, Ambroise Guellec, former secretary of state for the sea under Jacques Chirac from 1986 to 1988, one of the honoured witnesses invited, wondered about the real political consideration in France of the dangers of Brexit for fishing.

(*) It is estimated that 120 Breton boats, which frequent the waters of the south of England and around Wales, will be impacted by the Brexit (90 deep-sea and about thirty coastal). That's about 50,000 tonnes of fish, which is one-third of the tonnage at auction.


Translated from the full story courtesy of Le Télégramme https://www.letelegramme.fr/finistere/quimper/brexit-les-pecheurs-bretons-s-attendent-au-pire-07-10-2018-12099711.php#9cfZe1kwoth2JCra.99