Holtum explains that this vote in the Committee on Fisheries will bring an end to the long running European Union’s Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) reform. “This fund provides 6.5 billion euros aid which is intended to support all the policies within the CFP”, explains the spokesperson for the ECR Group. This fund would help fishermen comply with the new CFP requirements. One of the areas where financial assistance is needed is stopping the harmful to nature practice of discarding edible fish, claims Holtum. The vote on the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund took place on Monday 7 April.
Sounds great when you hear those words - but the truth of the matter is that the whole discards movement, though well-intentioned, is ill-conceived in detail - mixed fisheries and changing catch patterns (like the now abundant haddock in the Western approaches off Cornwall and the arrival of hake in the North Sea where there is a miniscule quota) are now likely to make the term 'choke species' trend on Twitter amongst fishermen as they try and battle their way through a simplistic piece of EU legislation.