Discards
Back to News and ViewsCod Blights North Sea Advice
11/07/2024
For the North Sea, the ICES advice paints an overall mixed picture this year. The fundamentals for the demersal stocks remain buoyant, but changes in the scientific perception of stocks have resulted in changes to headline advice. This is most dramatically seen in big upward swings of 211% and 177% respectively in the monk and […]
Read moreTAC setting science must change if discards are to become manageable
27/02/2024
Last December, fisheries managers at the annual UK/Norway/EU trilateral negotiations set the total allowable catches (TACs) for 2024. When they did, they made the deliberate decision to diverge from the 2024 ICES Northern cod advice. Against the background of widespread increasing stock biomass, the ICES MSY-based assessment through a novel precautionary procedure would have cut […]
Read moreCod: Precautionary Conundrum
06/10/2023
With the much anticipated Northern cod advice now out showing increasing biomass on the northern fishing grounds including West of Scotland and a recovery trajectory in the southern North Sea, it should be a time for jubilation. Regrettably, with an overall implied 17% reduction in TAC it is anything but. Despite an improvement in the […]
Read moreDiscards and REM at the Crossroads
07/06/2022
Dale Rodmell, chief executive of EEFPO gives his perspective on the reboot of discards policy in the UK. The Future Catching Policy (FCP) is a new phrase in English and Scottish fisheries policy circles that signals a move away from the discredited EU landings obligation, which remains as part of EU fisheries law retained by […]
Read more