Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to the answer of 15 February 2006, Official Report, column 2041, on fisheries, if she will list the (a) countries and (b) authorities which record estimates of discards; and what those known figures are for the last available year. [68583] Mr. Bradshaw: Since 2002 all EU countries have been required to collect data on discarding under Council Regulation 1543/2000 but the information is not yet compiled systematically. Last year, the European
Commission’s Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF) requested data on discards from the North Sea and Skaggerak, Kattegat, Eastern and Western Baltic, West of Scotland, Irish and Celtic Seas. The UK, Germany, Sweden, Latvia, Denmark and the Netherlands provided data. UK data for Northern Ireland vessels were not available. From the available data, STECF produced estimates of total discards as follows:
Estimates of discards in 2004 (tonnes) |
| North Sea/Skaggerak | West of Scotland |
Cod | 7,058 | 90 | Haddock
| 16,845
| 4,944 | Whiting
| 45,239
| 2,617 | Plaice
| 62,089
| 0 | Sole
| 2,683
| 0 | Nephrops
| No estimate
| No estimate | Saithe
| 9,001
| 0 |
Data on discarding remains scarce and these estimates should be treated with caution. STECF has begun work to develop a “Discards Atlas”—a compendium of available information from member states on discards as a resource for fisheries science. Member states will be asked to provide data by the end of this year and after database creation, quality checking, compilation, mapping etc. it is hoped that the atlas will be available in 2007-08. |
