Discards and fishing gear technology
Improving selectivity - reducing discards
Improving the selectivity of fishing gears helps to target
catches and reduce the levels of unwanted fish and other species
(discards) that can be wasted by being thrown back into the sea,
often dead.
Each fishery (and sometimes each vessel) requires its own
solutions to minimise unwanted discarding and optimise the
selectivity of fishing gears. Some good progress has been made to date, and
discarding is decreasing in the English and Welsh fishing
industry. A recent example is the Project 50% sea trials.
There is, however, a continued need to work closely with the
fishing industry to further reduce discards to the practicable
minimum. We continue to work actively in this field to devise
practical solutions.
Primarily funded by Defra, our close collaboration
with the fishing industry and other stakeholder agencies -
such as Seafish, AFBI (Northern Ireland), Marine Scotland and
various European partners - is beginning to make the difference and
is proving that technical options can play a part in fisheries
management.
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