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THE National Federation of Fishermen's Organisations has launched a strong attack on the EU Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki over her stance on discards and other matters.The NFFO's misgivings abut her approach to reform of the Common Fisheries Policy are also shared by other fishing groups, but this is one of the strongest criticisms so far.
In a statement headed "Discard Damanaki" the NFFO said: "You have to admire Commissioner Damanaki’s sheer political skill and audacity in putting herself at the head of a crusade to end the discarding of fish in European waters. She has deftly shifted the focus of hostile media attention arising from Hugh's Fish Fight away from the European Commission and onto member states and the fishing industry by advocating a simple ban on discards.
"But wait a minute. This is the same Commissioner who this week also published her “Communication” on how the Commission intends to approach its proposals for fishing quotas in 2012. If in November and December, the Council of Ministers follows the Commission’s proposals, the result will be a huge increase in the amount of discards. Many thousands of additional tons of valuable and marketable fish will be discarded.
"This is because of the intention to slash by 25 per cent all quotas on which scientific data is poor – accounting for perhaps 60 per cent of the stocks on which the International Council for Exploration of the Seas provides assessments. Many of these stocks are in mixed fisheries so the fish will continue to be caught – but not now landed. They will go over the side.
The NFFO statement concludes: "Discards are a waste of the resource and are terrible for the fishing industry’s reputation. But one statistic that has not been to the fore, in either Hugh's Fish Fight or Commissioner Damanaki’s subsequent pronouncements: over the last decade the English fishing fleet has reduced its discards by 50 per cent. This is real progress that must be continued. It will not be helped by blunt gesture politics in the form of a theoretical ban. And it will certainly not be achieved if the Commission continues to increase the amount of discards required by regulation."
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