18 Months on: Progress Update on Dutch Case Study

18 months on, work continues on improving the selectivity of demersal fishing gear to catch less discards within the Dutch flatfish fishery.

A meeting in October was organised by the Dutch Fishing Sector for fishermen and researchers from the Netherlands (IMARES) and Belgium (ILVO) to discuss if and how fishing gear used to catch demersal species can be made more selective, to reduce the number of fish discarded.

GAP2 scientist Marloes Kraan gave a short presentation on the discards debate as it is currently stands in Europe; Pim Visser, Chief Executive of VisNed, explained the current state of affairs regarding the discards ban, including the proposal made by the European fishing industry.

After a short discussion on the context of discards in Europe, the fishermen discussed the options to be more selective with the scientists and agreed to continue to work on this issue.

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