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FISH which once would have been thrown back into the sea because it was over the quota limit may in future be distributed to charities, the Commons was told.
EU Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki, who has been on a whistle-stop tour of European and Scandinavian capitals in recent weeks, appeared before a group of MPs at a House of Commons environment and food select committee in London yesterday to explain her proposals for reform of the Common Fisheries Policy.
One of those reforms is to end discards - the practice of throwing fish back into the sea. The practice of discarding fish was highlighted by celebrity food writer Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall on television at the beginning of the year and his campaign won massive public support.
Ms Damanaki told MPs that she is now looking at plans to give fish that would otherwise have been thrown back to charities to help the poorer members of society. However, just how it will be distributed to the various charities and exactly who will take on the task has not yet been decided. But she did say that fishermen would be compensated for those discard catches.
Ms Damanaki also said that the public should be encouraged to make responsible choices when buying fish. She also wanted to bring an end to subsidies paid for scrapping fishing vessels because the current system was not working. Hundreds of millions of pounds had been spent on compensation for scrapping in the past few years but the EU fleet catching capacity was still higher because some of the money had been spent on building more powerful fishing vessels.
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