Discard ban: The Norwegian example
Following the coming into force of the landing obligation for pelagic stocks, as well as the upcoming discard ban on demersal species in 2016, the EU fishing fleet has been faced with the issue of minimising unwanted by-catch via new and more selective management measures. A peer reviewed paper on “The “Discard Ban Package”: Experiences in efforts to improve the exploitation patterns in Norwegian fisheries” by Peter Gullestad, Specialist Director of The Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries details the effects of Norway’s discard ban in the Barrens Sea. The conclusions derived from this paper are that: “The lesson learnt is that a prudent management regime should give attention to and investigate possible improvements both in exploitation patterns to provide incentives for more selective fishing, as well as in the levels of exploitation. Stakeholders’ acceptance of the change in policy has grown overtime, and it could optimistically be argued that the success of these policy changes has led to changes in the perception on how the fisheries should be best exercised.”
This paper also looks into:
- Closing areas, such as the criteria used, the procedure followed, cases of real-time and permanent closures.
- Cooperation with neighbouring countries
- The introduction process of the discard ban in Norway: enforcement and sanctions, the exceptions to the rule,
- The accompanying measures to allow for a better integration of the discard ban, such as compensation to fishermen, changing of fishing grounds, tailoring of national quota regulations, development of selective gear
- Gains and effects from the discard ban