The European Union’s fishing quota system doesn’t work. Even the European Union appears to admit this, and released a green paper in April suggesting some serious reforms.

Yesterday, Europe’s fish ministers met in Brussels and had what the European Commission calls “frank and open discussion” and a “thorough and honest exchange of views”. Obviously this is normally diplomatic-speak for a stand up row.

Key to the Commission’s plans is eliminating ‘discards’, whereby caught fish that could be eaten are thrown back into the sea as they do not fit the quota of the fisherman who has hauled them in.

Danish Fisheries Minister Eva Kjer Hansen said yesterday that quotas should be based on how much fish is caught, rather than how much is landed and eventually sold.

“We should move from landing quotas to catch quotas — meaning that everything that is caught is brought to land,” she said (Reuters).

This could even be monitored with video cameras on boats, a method piloted in Denmark. “You can clearly see what kind of fish are being caught and you can control what they are bringing back to land,” Hansen told the BBC.

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