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DiscardLess – Strategies for the gradual elimination of discards in European fisheries

Fact Sheet

Result in Brief

Reporting

Results

Objective

The European Union has committed to the gradual elimination of discarding. DiscardLess will help provide the knowledge, tools and technologies as well as the involvement of the stakeholders to achieve this. These will be integrated into Discard Mitigation Strategies (DMS) proposing cost-effective solutions at all stages of the seafood supply chain. The first focus is on preventing the unwanted catches from ever being caught. This will promote changes in gear using existing and innovative selectivity technology, and changes in fishing tactics based on fishers’ and scientists’ knowledge. The second focus is on making best use of the unavoidable unwanted catch. We will detail technical and marketing innovations from the deck, through the supply chain to the final market, including monitoring, traceability and valorization components. DiscardLess will evaluate the impacts of discarding on the marine environment, on the economy, and across the wider society. We will evaluate these impacts before, during and after the implementation of the landing obligation, allowing comparison between intentions and outcomes. Eliminating discards is as much a societal challenge as a fishery management one, so we will also evaluate stakeholders’ perception of discards. DiscardLess will describe the changes in management and the associated governance structures needed to cement the process. We will propose approaches to managing discards in a range of case study fisheries across Europe, encompassing differences in specific discarding issues. All these innovations will be combined in integrated Internet based interactive programs (DMS toolbox) that will help fishers to evaluate the present and future situation and to take a more qualified decision of how to adjust to the new regime. Also, we will disseminate the outcome of the project and maximize knowledge transfer across Europe through an educational environment – teaching the next generation – as well as more conventional routes.

Programme(s)

H2020-EU.3.2. - SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine, maritime and inland water research, and the bioeconomy

Topic(s)

SFS-09-2014 - Towards a gradual elimination of discards in European fisheries

Call for proposal

H2020-SFS-2014-2

See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

RIA - Research and Innovation action

Leaflet | Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors, Credit: EC-GISCO, © EuroGeographics for the administrative boundaries

Coordinator

DANMARKS TEKNISKE UNIVERSITET

Address

Anker Engelundsvej 1 Bygning 101 A
2800 Kgs Lyngby

Denmark

Activity type

Higher or Secondary Education Establishments

EU Contribution

€ 880 903

Website

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Participants (30)

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INSTITUT FRANCAIS DE RECHERCHE POUR L'EXPLOITATION DE LA MER

France

EU Contribution

€ 275 000

INSTITUTO ESPANOL DE OCEANOGRAFIA

Spain

EU Contribution

€ 195 000

UNIVERSITETET I BERGEN

Norway

EU Contribution

€ 15 004

UNIVERSITY OF STRATHCLYDE

United Kingdom

EU Contribution

€ 80 115

KOBENHAVNS UNIVERSITET

Denmark

EU Contribution

€ 150 250

UNIVERSITE DE BRETAGNE OCCIDENTALE

France

EU Contribution

€ 150 000

SEA FISH INDUSTRY AUTHORITY

United Kingdom

EU Contribution

€ 39 913

MARINE SCOTLAND

United Kingdom

EU Contribution

€ 340 013

FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS FAO

Italy

EU Contribution

€ 80 495

SIMRAD SPAIN SLU

Spain

EU Contribution

€ 15 000

HAMPIDJAN HF

Iceland

EU Contribution

€ 14 900

SAFETYNET TECHNOLOGIES LIMITED

United Kingdom

EU Contribution

€ 50 000

MARINE INSTITUTE

Ireland

EU Contribution

€ 275 000

IOANNA N.ARGYROU SIMBOULOI EPICHEIR ISIAKIS ANAPTYXIS ETAIREIA PERIORISMENIS EYTHYNIS

Greece

EU Contribution

€ 195 000

AQUIMER

France

EU Contribution

€ 69 704

IMAR- INSTITUTO DO MAR

Portugal

EU Contribution

€ 225 000

THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS

United Kingdom

EU Contribution

€ 60 000

MATIS OHF

Iceland

EU Contribution

€ 345 035

MAREL HF

Iceland

EU Contribution

€ 15 175

SHIPCON SP ZOO

Poland

EU Contribution

€ 70 000

TRACE Wildlife Forensics Network Limited

United Kingdom

EU Contribution

€ 59 999

FUNDACION AZTI - AZTI FUNDAZIOA

Spain

EU Contribution

€ 540 250

BARNA SA

Spain

EU Contribution

€ 45 110

NUTRITION SCIENCES

Belgium

EU Contribution

€ 45 063

UNIVERSITETET I TROMSOE - NORGES ARKTISKE UNIVERSITET

Norway

EU Contribution

€ 222 881

IRISH OBSERVER NETWORK LIMITED

Ireland

EU Contribution

€ 194 990

FISHFIX

Belgium

EU Contribution

€ 75 000

INSTITUT SUPERIEUR DES SCIENCES AGRONOMIQUES, AGROALIMENTAIRES, HORTICOLES ET DU PAYSAGE

France

EU Contribution

€ 60 000

ALPHAFILM & KOMMUNIKATION APS

Denmark

EU Contribution

€ 215 200

Memorial University of Newfoundland

Canada

Project information

DiscardLess

Grant agreement ID: 633680

Project website

Status

Closed project

Start date

1 March 2015
End date

28 February 2019

Funded under:

H2020-EU.3.2.

Overall budget:

€ 5 551 125,25
EU contribution

€ 5 000 000

Coordinated by:

DANMARKS TEKNISKE UNIVERSITET

Denmark

This project is featured in...

CORDIS RESULTS PACK

EU research and innovation driving sustainable seafood in Europe and beyond

HEALTH

FOOD AND NATURAL RESOURCES

Last update: 14 February 2019

DE EN ES FR IT PL

Knowledge, tools and methods to reduce discarding in European fisheries

The EU has called for an end to the wasteful practice of returning unwanted catches to the sea when they can't be landed and sold. An EU-funded initiative developed the knowledge, tools and technologies, and gained the involvement of stakeholders and fisheries managers needed to achieve this goal.

FOOD AND NATURAL RESOURCES

The 2013 reform of the EU's Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) aims to gradually eliminate the wasteful practice of throwing away caught fish that are unwanted, by introducing the so-called landing obligation (LO), a ban on discarding. However, implementation of the regulation is challenging, and its feasibility, legitimacy and controllability is disputed. Getting European fisheries to operate without discards The Horizon 2020 DiscardLess (Strategies for the gradual elimination of discards in European fisheries) project addresses the short-term challenges and potential benefits, to support successful LO implementation. "Our focus is on preventing the unwanted catches from ever being caught, making best use of the unavoidable unwanted catch, and lastly on evaluating impacts of discarding on the marine environment, economy and society as a whole," says project coordinator Prof. Clara Ulrich. From an ecological perspective, the food-web effects of the LO — where dead fish are landed rather than thrown back to the sea — are likely limited beyond seabirds and benthic scavengers. Banning discards implies landing and recording all catches, not just the commercial part of the catch. The intended ecological benefits of this include limiting the total mortality to the advised sustainable level and rebuilding stocks. In the short term, the LO will have substantial costs for fisheries. This is because there are no simple ways for fishers to fully select what's to be caught and what's to be avoided before the fishing gear is hauled on board. Discarding makes fisheries more cost-efficient. Over the longer term, however, reducing discards has the potential to increase profitability by promoting more sustainable fisheries. Discard mitigation strategies toolbox Project partners also developed a series of tools, freely accessible online via a single repository that gathers, synthesises and disseminates the knowledge produced by DiscardLess. So far, tools include a manual of existing selective gear devices and their effectiveness, proposed solutions based on interviews featuring fishers' responses to LO regulations, and a catalogue containing over 30 valorisation products and a methodology for selecting the most promising ones in each case study. Also included is a report on possible on-board handling of unwanted unavoidable catches for four different fleet segments in 3D, together with a simple cost-benefit tool to estimate the economic feasibility of investing in the solutions. According to Prof. Ulrich, the most significant output to date is "mobilising and expanding the vast multidisciplinary knowledge on all biological, technological, economic, political and institutional aspects linked to discarding" and "sharing it with all key fishery stakeholders during the LO legal implementation period from 2015 to 2018". All the main findings and outcomes are being collected in an open-access book that will be published in early 2019 when the project ends. "We want to ensure that the DiscardLess tools, information and strategies provide relevant, acceptable and cost-effective means with a wide uptake in society that will contribute to meeting the LO goals," concludes Prof. Ulrich. "Ultimately, the goal of DiscardLess is to support the implementation of the EU CFP towards sustainable fishing practices."

Keywords

DiscardLess, fish, landing obligation (LO), discarding, common fisheries policy (CFP)

Project information

DiscardLess

Grant agreement ID: 633680

Project website

Status

Closed project

Start date

1 March 2015
End date

28 February 2019

Funded under:

H2020-EU.3.2.

Overall budget:

€ 5 551 125,25
EU contribution

€ 5 000 000

Coordinated by:

DANMARKS TEKNISKE UNIVERSITET

This project is featured in...

CORDIS RESULTS PACK

EU research and innovation driving sustainable seafood in Europe and beyond

HEALTH

FOOD AND NATURAL RESOURCES

Last update: 14 February 2019

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Periodic Reporting for period 1 - DiscardLess (DiscardLess – Strategies for the gradual elimination of discards in European fisheries)

Reporting period: 2015-03-01 to 2016-08-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

European fisheries should operate without discards. This societal objective has been translated in a landing obligation (LO) for commercially exploited stocks in the new EU Common Fisheries Policy, but its implementation is challenging. In the short-term, the LO will have substantial costs for the fisheries. However, on longer time scales, landing discards has the potential to increase profitability by promoting more sustainable fisheries. DiscardLess addresses both the short-term challenges and the potential benefits to support the implementation of the LO. Specifically, DiscardLess works in close cooperation with stakeholders and policy makers to:

A. Assess the impact of discards on the ecosystem, economy and society
B. Investigate the drivers of discarding, and identify how those can be abated
C. Develop user-based innovative tools and strategies to avoid unwanted catches
D. Develop innovative methods and new value chains to handle and use unavoidable unwanted catches
E. Enhance controllability of and compliance with the LO via the development of operational and cost- effective tools for traceability and monitoring
F. Formulate policy guidelines to reduce incentives to discard and promote the adoption of alternative mitigation strategies, and support other maritime policies
G. Integrate the gathered knowledge on discard mitigation strategies and transfer it widely

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Project overview poster

Project information

DiscardLess

Grant agreement ID: 633680

Project website

Status

Closed project

Start date

1 March 2015
End date

28 February 2019

Funded under:

H2020-EU.3.2.

Overall budget:

€ 5 551 125,25
EU contribution

€ 5 000 000

Coordinated by:

DANMARKS TEKNISKE UNIVERSITET

This project is featured in...

CORDIS RESULTS PACK

EU research and innovation driving sustainable seafood in Europe and beyond

HEALTH

FOOD AND NATURAL RESOURCES

Last update: 14 February 2019

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Last update: 6 June 2019

Record number: 193250

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Participants (30)

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Knowledge, tools and methods to reduce discarding in European fisheries

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Periodic Reporting for period 1 - DiscardLess (DiscardLess – Strategies for the gradual elimination of discards in European fisheries)

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CORDIS

Objective

Coordinator

Participants (30)

Project information

This project is featured in...

Knowledge, tools and methods to reduce discarding in European fisheries

Keywords

Project information

This project is featured in...

Discover other articles in the same domain of application

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - DiscardLess (DiscardLess – Strategies for the gradual elimination of discards in European fisheries)

Project information

This project is featured in...

Deliverables

Publications

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This project is featured in...

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