A EUROPEAN uNION commitment to ban fishing discards is a step forward, Environment Secre- tary Richard Lochhead has said.
It follows a meeting of the EU Council of Ministers in Luxembourg, which agreed on a way forward for reforming the Common Fisheries Policy.
The council hopes to ban the discarding of fish such as mackerel and herring by January 1, 2014. Banning the discard of whitefish such as cod, haddock, plaice and sole will be phased in a year after that and will be fully in place by January 1, 2018, under the proposals.
EU rules give fishermen quotas for certain fish but they can carry on fishing once the limits are reached as long as they do not bring any more of that species to shore.
This means tonnes of edible fish are thrown back to sea as discards, accounting for as much as 90% of the catch in some fisheries. Mr Lochhead described the time-frame set out as "a significant step in the right direction after more than 30 years of discard inaction".
Bertie Armstrong, chief executive of the Scottish Fishermen's Federation, said: "The issue that really needs to be addressed is achieving the correct balance between abundance of fish in the sea and catching opportunity – a point the EC still seems unable to grasp."
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