How to deal with the EU landing obligation: lessons from an English discard ban sea trial

A new EU Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) came into force on 1 January 2014. Article 15 of the new CFP basic regulation introduced a discard ban or landing obligation (LO) in EU fisheries whereby the discarding of quota species is prohibited. There is an urgent need to understand the impact of this new regulation on the UK fishing industry and fishing industries elsewhere in Europe. This study conducted a discard ban trial to provide an opportunity for the fishing industry to demonstrate what a LO would mean for them. The results are mostly illustrative and qualitative, designed to inform policy decisions and identify areas of future work to assist in the implementation of the discard ban. Five recommendations are made, which if adopted, would significantly improve the prospects of a smooth transition to a largely discard-free EU fishery.