SPATIAL SQUEEZE AND FUTURE DISCARDS POLICY KEY STRATEGIC CONCERNS FOR EAST OF ENGLAND FPO

Spatial squeeze and future discards policy key strategic concerns for East of England FPO. Spatial squeeze and future discards policy are two of the uppermost strategic issues for the Eastern England Fish Producers’ Organisation, says chief executive Dale Rodmell.

UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and Scottish Government consultations in the last two years on discards and Remote Electronic Monitoring of vessels to deliver clear pathways to ensure their sustainable and equitable implementation are still to be released.

On discards, Dale Rodmell told Fish Focus that there needs to be more intelligent management that moves away from the current primacy of single stock advice, which can lead to one species with a low or reduced quota causing a ‘choke’ in  mixed fisheries, with the potential of causing fishing closures and great hardship to fishing operations and communities.

He believes the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) should be given a strengthened mandate to provide advice with respect to managing discards.

“There needs to be a more balanced approach to management,” he says. “The format in which ICES advice is currently presented is not well designed for fishery managers to reach well-balanced decisions. Precaution, Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) and discards minimisation are important parameters for TAC decisions, but the advisory process is currently too narrowly aimed at the interpretation of single stock MSY and precaution at the expense of discards management. There needs to be a trade-off between single stock and mixed fishery advice.”

As well as reforming the advisory process, such a change in management could be supported through long-term management plans or multi-annual strategies, so that a more holistic approach is adopted, benefiting both fisheries and stocks.

On spatial squeeze, he said this was causing real concern among fishermen, with offshore renewables and Marine Protected Areas sectioning-off ever increasing areas of the seabed from fishing activity.

“Often, offshore renewable projects are implemented on an individual basis, without any coherent thinking or consideration of the impact of spatial squeeze from previous projects, or those which may happen in the future,” says Dale Rodmell. “It is always presumed that boats can go and fish somewhere else, but that is increasingly difficult if more and more areas of the sea are becoming out of bounds for fishermen. There needs to be implemented a strategy for both the fishing industry and other marine users to manage seabed pressures that ensures there is a sustainable pathway for co-existence.”

There are 24 vessels in membership of the Eastern England Fish Producers’ Organisation, comprising smaller static gear crab and lobster craft based in the east of England, and larger demersal vessels which base themselves at Peterhead for whitefish catching.

For whitefish, there is an encouraging trend of stocks and quotas moving in the right direction, including for haddock, whiting, saithe and cod.

“The abundance of small haddock and whiting is causing marketing problems, given the lack of processing capacity and a shortage of flexible labour in Scotland to handle the catch,” said Mr Rodmell. “But hopefully such issues can be overcome through new marketing and other initiatives. The good news is that many whitefish stocks are moving in the right direction, which is a welcome sign for the future.”