News Date: Tuesday 7th April 2009
A Fair Deal For Britain's Fishermen and Fish.
Last week in the House of Commons, Tim Loughton, MP for East Worthing and Shoreham, spoke up for local fishermen, asking the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to do away with fish discarding and institute a new environmentally-friendly scheme which would benefit British fishermen.
Speaking in the chamber Tim said:
‘All too often, when I go down to Worthing beach to see the last vestiges of the Worthing fishing fleet, and to buy my fresh cod and have it freshly filleted in front of me, I am told, “We haven’t got any, but you should have seen all the ones that we had to throw away.”
‘Is it not time that we got rid of the obscenity that is fish discarding, and piloted a scheme that at least allows fishermen to land some of their by-catch and be rewarded for part of it?
‘We should incentivise fishermen with more environmentally friendly policies, and get a fair deal for Britain’s fishermen, fish-eaters and fish.’
1. Tim Loughton (East Worthing and Shoreham) (Con): What steps his Department is taking to reduce the quantity of discarded fish. [268324]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Huw Irranca-Davies): We are committed to ensuring more sustainable fisheries by tackling the important issue of reducing discards. The UK fisheries departments are therefore funding a range of work on discards in collaboration with the fishing industry. Ultimately, however, the solution to the problem will be found at European level, and the UK will play a leading role in agreeing an overarching EU policy on the issue later this year.
Tim Loughton: All too often, when I go down to Worthing beach to see the last vestiges of the Worthing fishing fleet, and to buy my fresh cod and have it freshly filleted in front of me, I am told, “We haven’t got any, but you should have seen all the ones that we had to throw away.” Is it not time that we got rid of the obscenity that is fish discarding, and piloted a scheme that at least allows fishermen to land some of their by-catch and be rewarded for part of it? We should incentivise fishermen with more environmentally friendly policies, and get a fair deal for Britain’s fishermen, fish-eaters and fish.
