Seven boats of the Scottish fleet will carry CCTV cameras for the next six months. (Photo: Stock File/FIS)

Scotland adopts discard monitoring system

UNITED KINGDOM
Thursday, September 17, 2009, 16:10 (GMT + 9)

The Scottish government has decided to experiment with the controversial CCTV camera monitoring system and place cameras on fishing boats in an effort to reduce discards. This comes five weeks after a one-year-long CCTV camera test drive was shown by the Danish to reduce discards in the North Sea.

Seven boats will carry CCTV cameras for the next six months to verify the records made on discards in the waters off Scotland. The GBP 100,000 (EUR 113,155) project is meant to find whether discard estimates match up with reality.

Meanwhile, the fishing community is split -- opponents argue the initiative is an invasion of privacy, while supporters say it will prove that discard estimates, currently at 1 million tonnes per year just in the North Sea, are exaggerated, The Times reports.

The system is also beneficial because it allows processors to find out where the fish they sell was first caught, said Alex Olsen, managing director of Espersen, supplier of frozen fish to McDonald’s in Europe.

“It is not just about quality, but also about sustainable stocks. The fact that we can show no discards and reduced by-catch is important to our customers,” he said.

Financial incentives for fishers were included as part of the Danish experiment. For instance, as a reward for supporting the CCTV test and landing all of their catch above a minimum size, fishers were granted higher annual quotas that ranged between a 40-150 per cent increase contingent on species and location.

The complete results will be announced in Copenhagen next month. A preliminary analysis shows that the seven vessels tested, on average, each landed at least twice the amount of small cod as non-tested vessels.

“The discarding of cod in the trial was far lower than in the rest of the fleet,” said Jørgen Dalskov, who led the project. “We are also getting more precise catch statistics and that will improve the quality of stock assessment.”

Estimated discards in the North Sea last year amounted to 21,800 tonnes of cod (44.8 per cent of catch), 8,000 tonnes of whiting (36.4 per cent) and 13,000 tonnes of haddock (31 per cent) and 47,200 tonnes of plaice (49.1 per cent), according to the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES).

Related articles:

- New plan to prevent discards
- Slash discards with on-board cameras, Danes propose

By Natalia Real
editorial@fis.com
www.fis.com