Ban on discarding fish

The Norwegian ban originally covered cod in ’s economic zone north of 62°N, but the ban has been gradually expanded so that today it is prohibited to discard any of the main commercial species of fish in ’s economic zone.

The term discard means both throwing overboard catches taken on board a vessel as well as releasing fish from gear during a catch operation. The most common practice here is discarding during purse seine fishing.

Russia, the Faroe Islands and have later introduced similar discarding bans. In EU waters, on the contrary, it is prohibited to keep on board or land catches taken in conflict with the regulations.

With its resistance against an introduction of a ban on discards the EU consequently occupies a special position among the fishery nations bordering the .

In 2007, however, the European Council of Ministers agreed to restructure the management policy by gradually working to reduce discards in the fisheries. Implementing this decision on principle in the form of practical policy will presumably be a challenging and time-consuming process.

In this context it must be noted that in regard to the discard problem the EU, operating mainly in the North Sea and the Skagerrak, has a considerably more complex fishing pattern than .

The EU’s new policy in this field is of course welcome seen from a Norwegian perspective. Together with Russia, the EU is our most important partner in the area of fisheries management.

The cooperation on management of the fisheries in the North Sea and will no doubt be strengthened when the parties achieve a common policy concerning the discard problem, making harmonisation of the rules easier to accomplish.