SCOTTISH fishermen's leaders have warned that 1000 jobs and 400 boats could be lost if long-awaited European Commission (EC) reforms of the Common Fisheries Policy go ahead as proposed.

Anger erupted after the Commission yesterday announced plans to force fishermen to stop discarding up to half their unwanted catches.

The proposals will see crews obliged to land everything they catch and European Union (EU) member states would have to ensure that fishing vessels are set up to monitor the new rules.

Other measures on the table include the introduction of transferable catch share -- or concessions -- for vessels more than 12 metres long and all vessels using towed gear until 2015.

The plan, which has yet to be agreed, will see specific support for small-scale fisheries to recognise the important role they play in the social fabric and cultural identity of many of Europe’s coastal regions.

It would see an end to micro-management from Brussels. EU legislators will only define the general framework, the basic principles and the overall targets, but the countries will decide how to implement the measures and will co-operate at regional level.

Two years of haggling now lie ahead between the EC and members states over the plans.

Fishermen hate discarding but say if they have to land the unwanted species they do not mean to catch, it will count against their quotas of those they do want to catch.

Bertie Armstrong, chief executive of the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation, welcomed some of the EC’s strategy but said: “The EC’s own impact assessment of the current proposals if they were implemented in their unmodified form is that they would result in a 20% downturn in the size of the Scottish fishing fleet and numbers of people employed in the industry. That is completely unacceptable and is why it is essential some elements of these proposals are revised over the coming months.

“Scottish fishermen abhor discarding, but in the complex mixed fisheries that our fleet operates in it is totally impracticable to ban discards altogether.”

He said conservation initiatives such as closed fishing areas and more selective fishing gear adopted by Scottish fishermen is the way forward.

Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead raised concern the Commission’s strategy could end in increased trading of fishing quotas that would erode Scotland’s historic rights and “could spell doom for our fragile fishing communities”.

Maria Damanaki, EU Maritime and Fisheries Commissione, said: “We cannot afford business as usual any more because the stocks are really collapsing.”

The practice of boats discarding up to half their catches had to stop, she said. “The EC proposes that by 2015, stocks must be exploited at sustainable levels, defined as the highest catch that can be safely taken year after year and which maintains the fish population size at maximum productivity,” she said.

“Estimates show that if stocks were exploited in this way, stock sizes would increase by about 70%.”