Proposals to end the wasteful practice of throwing away edible fish have met strong opposition from the European fishing industry.
The plan to ban "discards" was brought forward by the EU fisheries commissioner, Maria Damanaki, earlier this year. She wants a ban – which she says is necessary to preserve fish stocks – within two years, as part of a wide-ranging reform of the European common fisheries policy.
But at a hearing in Brussels on Tuesday afternoon, held by Damanaki and attended by fishermen's representatives, green groups and consumer groups, some members of the fishing industry vehemently opposed the plans, while others suggested the proposals should be modified.
Millions of tonnes of edible fish are caught and then thrown away at sea in Europe for several reasons: some, because they are of low commercial value, but others are discarded because the fishermen do not have a quota for that species, or because if the fishermen landed them, they would exceed their allotted EU quotas.
Damanaki said: "I know that there are many here today who follow the discussion on discarding with some mistrust. Some among you think and have said so that the commission is showing a knee-jerk reaction to media hype in the UK when we say that we need to tackle this problem of discards once and for all."
But she told the meeting that ending discards was necessary if fishing fleets in Europe were to have a future. She said: "We don't have time [to delay]. Our stocks are in a difficult position. The great majority of our fishermen, specially the coastal fishermen are complaining that there is no fish in the sea. We are also faced with a strong public opinion of consumers ... [and] it is also about good old common sense. If we are hauling up fish, it mostly dies in the process and throwing it back doesn't help anybody. It is actually worse than landing it."
She credited the UK "Fish Fight" campaign, headed by the celebrity chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, as a key factor in persuading the commission of the need to eliminate discards.
Fearnley-Whittingstall, also present at the hearing, commended the commissioner's plans and said throwing away up to 50% of the catch was "unsustainable".
But fishermen are concerned that they will lose money as a result of a ban, mainly because they will be forced to land lower value fish for which there is little consumer demand. One told the meeting: "The consequence of this will be a much, much smaller fleet." Another said it was simply not possible to end discarding completely.
Mike Parker, chief executive of the Scottish White Fish Producer's Association, said: "Dictatorial practices [from the European commission] will not work."
Jon Harman, of pan-industry body Seafish UK, added that the EU must not be "prescriptive".
Sections of the fishing industry and some member states have come up with an alternative proposal that would water down the commission's plans. Under this alternative, discards would not be banned outright but would rely on fishermen signing up voluntarily.
But conservationists attacked the alternative proposal. Greenpeace said that if it was adopted, fishermen who discarded the most would in fact be rewarded, by receiving a higher catch quota, and countries that signed up to the scheme would have their existing national quotas increased by as much as 12%.
Saskia Richartz, Greenpeace EU oceans policy director, said: "The practice of discarding dead or dying fish is disgraceful. We must stop throwing away perfectly good fish. All fish that are caught should be landed and counted under scientifically based quotas. It is ridiculous to reward the fishermen that discard the most with a higher catch quota unless there is an effort to shift towards more selective fishing methods. Unbelievably, destructive bottom trawlers with high levels of discards would get more out of this scheme than fishermen using sustainable fishing methods."
