Brussels – Uta Bellion, director of the Pew Environment Group’s European Marine Programme and OCEAN2012 coordinator, issued the following statement on the European Commission’s approach to end discards.
"The Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) reform is an excellent opportunity for the EU to establish new policies that will end overfishing, including the wasteful practice of discarding. Such policies should prevent unwanted fish from being caught in the first place and require everything to be landed in port, except for those species with a high chance of survival, such as threatened sharks and rays.
"What is most important is that the CFP reform proposal, scheduled for release on July 13, must prioritise environmental sustainability. We clearly need a policy that ends overfishing and not just discarding."
- Uta BellionOCEAN2012 discards position (PDF)
Joint OCEAN2012 and NGO position statement on discards, May 3 2011
Es Español (PDF)
OCEAN2012 was initiated, and is co-ordinated, by the Pew Environment Group, the conservation arm of The Pew Charitable Trusts, a non-governmental organisation working to end overfishing in the world´s oceans.
The steering group of OCEAN2012 consists of the Coalition for Fair Fisheries Arrangements, Ecologistas en Acción, The Fisheries Secretariat, nef (new economics foundation), the Pew Environment Group and Seas At Risk.