At the moment returning unwanted catches to the sea (mostly dead fish and unwanted bycatch) does not count against fishing quotas in the European Union. However European Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Maria Damanaki has been pushing for a reform on this rule. She has been facing heavy opposition from a number of member states. Now at the Agriculture and Fisheries Council meeting chaired by Danish Minister of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries Mette Gjerskov it seems that such a rule became a lot closer as there seemed to be an agreement among the participants discussing a wider reform for sustainable fisheries.
Fishermen rather understandably throw away very large portion of commercially less valuable catch in their search for economic returns. Sometimes these policy decisions really go back and forth. For example in Finland new fishing rules demand fishermen to throw undersized fish back into the lake, no matter if dead or not, are in effect since this April. The EU-wide reform suggestions are by no means final but the aim is to get there by 2014. Most of the listed fishing industry related companies in the Nordic exchanges are in non EU-member Norway.
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