“We have a very good storage mechanism that is the sea, where we want to leave the fish. The focus should be to not catch the fish in the first place, rather than promoting sales of the unwanted catches.”

MEP Struan Stevenson (UK, ECR), 12 December 2011, at a meeting with the European Parliament’s Fisheries Committee.

The Fisheries Committee discussed the Commission’s new proposal for the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF). One of the proposals in the EMFF is to provide €45 million in “storage aid” for unwanted catches that are brought ashore as the discards ban is introduced.

>> Read more about the EMFF proposal

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