Although the EU’s Landing Obligation is still in a transitional period, the European Commission (EC) has reminded fishing fleets that bans on discarding fish and shellfish now exist in all EU waters and for many different fisheries.
In 2015, the landing obligation began to cover small and large pelagic species, industrial fisheries and the main fisheries in the Baltic. A year later, it was extended to demersal fisheries for the North Sea and the Atlantic. This year, more species are covered in the Atlantic, while species from the Mediterranean and the Black Sea are included for the first time.
Since 2014, the EC has supported the rollout of the landing obligation by adopting several discard plans for the Baltic, the North Sea and the Atlantic, based on recommendations by member states. Since 1 January 2017, additional discard plans are in place for certain demersal fisheries in the Mediterranean Sea, including hake, red mullet and some bivalves.
Also new in 2017 is that member states must start applying a points system for illegal discarding. They also need to send additional data to the Scientific Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF), so that scientists can advise the Commission on updating the discard plans if necessary.
To try and ensure a smooth transition to the full landing obligation by the 2019 deadline, member states, scientists, fishermen and other stakeholders have been trialing solutions in recent years.
At the same time, the EC has co-financed pilot projects such as “DisCatch,” which focuses on demersal and small pelagic trawl fisheries in the Mediterranean Sea.
In addition, European funds like the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) is available to support projects looking to tackle the specific problems of each fishery, including making gears more selective, developing new IT tools for fishermen, finding ways to store fish on vessels or on land, and increasing the value of by-products from landed catches.
