The number of fish killed in EU waters each year is likely much higher than has been thought, “corrupting” advice on fishing opportunities given by the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES).
That’s according to Lisa Borges, a scientist with ICES and head of company FishFix, whose latest paper — “the Unintended Impact Of The European Discard Ban” — has warned EU fisheries management could “implode” without changes.
Her research found that an increase in fishing quotas of up to 50% was applied to account for the implementation of the common fisheries policy (CFP)’s landing obligation (LO) in EU waters in 2020, despite no enforcement of the LO and no decrease in discards.
“This discrepancy is likely to lead to a widespread unmeasured increase in the number of fish killed each year, which undermines the accuracy of scientific data, the ability of scientists to give reliable advice for fishing limits, and the ability of governments to make appropriate fisheries management decisions, and therefore lead to what the paper’s author describes as an ‘implosion of the EU fisheries management system’,” according to NGO Our Fish, which partnered with Borges to spread the word of the findings.
