Quote:
Originally Posted by animartco  ....The most awful thing about it was the legislation that was supposed to help the situation and has made it incredibly worse. The point being that everyone has their quota of each kind of fish, and when they pass their quota on one type they just carry on fishing until thy have filled their quotas of all types and throw all the extra ones overboard dead! This means that everyone is catching and killing tons more fish than they are allowed to land! |
Couldn't agree more. The EU/Britain's policy on by-catch is insane.
The European Union admit that between 40 and 60% of all North Sea catch is classed as by-catch, and is being dumped overboard. (In 2008, this was estimated at something like 600,000 tonnes from boats operating in British waters).
The policy of simply throwing the (now dead) by-catch overboard, on grounds that it was not the "target species" or that it would "exceed quota" must be one of the biggest wastes of valuable resources known to man.
Countries such as Namibia (which, incidentally, claimed its own 200 mile limit, and banished the EU fleet from fishing within that zone) have the policy of landing everything caught, but of levying a charge on non-quota species.
The scheme is closely monitored by on-board inspectors.
Fish landed that are not included in, or are in excess of the quota, are still sold. The amount of the levy is such that the vessel/crew concerned don't make any profit on the excess/non-quota catch, but also, they don't suffer any financial loss as result of landing/processing the excess. (This ensures that there is no financial incentive to the crew to try to catch more than they should).
The scheme creates funds for the government, and, more importantly, ensures that the excess catch goes to market instead of being simply wasted.
If countries such as Namibia can operate such a straight forward and logical policy, then why can't Britain and the rest of the EU?
Regards,
Mike.