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| Skippers and crews on trawlers, netters, beam trawlers, crabbers and longliners alike are no stranger to trips like this |
If you target certain demersal quota species you will be subject to the demersal landing obligation (discard ban) from 1 January 2016.
Not all demersal fish are immediately affected from this date because the EU is gradually introducing the new rules. Which rules apply to you depend on the sea area you fish in and the gear you use. Find out which apply to you. You must follow the pelagic landing obligation rules if you target any pelagic quota species (e.g. mackerel and herring). For species which are not subject to the landing obligation, follow the current rules.
Guidance for fishermen: Which fish come under the landing obligation, what you have to do with them on board your vessel and which you can sell for human consumption. MMO website.
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| Here's the MMO's quick guide to the LO. |
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| David Stevens Jnr and Snr supervise making yet more changes to their fishing gear - much of it funded solely from their cod ends (they twin-rig). |
David then sounds a cautionary note referencing that great flaw in the current quota system - historical catch data:
"We have had a lot of success with the adaptions we have made with our gear in eliminating juvenile haddocks, and the total capture of haddocks of all sizes. We have reduced under the MLS haddock catches by 87% and the total volume of haddocks is now well under 70% of what we would expect to see in our control nets (the gear we worked prior to the trial.) We have also had to use area avoidance and many nights we have been unable tow, due to volumes of haddocks still being too large for the quota we have available. This has come at a cost, we have lost our catch of whiten almost completely, our squid catch is down by half. We have been unable to work all of our grounds as well, so we haven’t always been in the best place to fish. Also by not towing at night from April through to October we have missed 25% of our hauls in this time period, with the resulting loss of all that fish we would have obviously taken, (megs, monks, lemons , ray, whiten Gurnard, Dover sole , and many more).There has been a fairly considerable financial loss this year, as well as a loss to the markets, of fish that we would have otherwise caught during our laying at night and area avoidance.
I would say bad policy creates far more discards than so called bad fishing practices, there are many complex reasons why a species becomes a choke, for our choke (area 7 haddocks) this is a multi layered problem. Essentially from what we are seeing on the grounds I think the lack of scientific data and more importantly the way that data is collected is causing a problem with the stock estimates of this species.
Coupled with that basing the quota amounts on historical catch data records is going to have huge implications across the EU as we all know fish move, and distribution cycles have changed in the last 25 years dramatically.This is the problem for us for area 7 haddock, before 95 we hardly saw a haddock now they are everywhere. The same can be said for many species around the UK and Ireland take hake for example in the North Sea.
Also drawing lines on a chart that determine stock coverage is no way to manage a fishery, the fish follow the feed and they will pass through area's and pay no attention to imaginary lines on a map, something is needed to address this issue as well.
"I would say on reflection although we have lost out in what we have done financially we have learned a great deal from our experience, we have made a few mistakes along the way, that’s inevitable.
As the landings obligation stands at present with the proposed flexibility's on the table, by 2019 the fleets in our area and probably across Europe the fleets will be tied up by half way through the year, the supplies of fish will cease and the consequences will ripple through the entire supply chain. This will result in unemployment, bankruptcies, losses to market share and fish supply shortages, a total disaster!
However I hope from what we have learned policy makers can get a good grasp of what problems we will encounter and more importantly the reasons why, fisherman’s voices need to be heard more clearly in this process,we have seen first hand the impact this policy will create and it doesn't look good.
"The decisions that are made in Brussels by the EU have had a huge impact on how we run our businesses. We are often left wondering how simple policies, have been made so complicated and bureaucratic that once they are introduced to industry level, they just don't work. I think that with the introduction of the discards ban, the bureaucrats have bitten off more than they can chew, and for once in their lives they are looking for someone else to come up with the answers.
This time it has to be the industry which leads the way, and I am sure that if we step up to the challenge, we can meet it. As long as the commission are prepared to rip up the rule book and afford us more flexibility to run our business's as we know best, so we can deliver the clean fisheries we know we can achieve."
