mr president the constant refrain of the commission and indeed of this report is ever-declining cod stocks
yet this year within the eu we will dump eur fifty million worth of dead cod back into the sea
why
because of our crazy policy on discards
the tacs have been driven so low that massive discards are being produced
probably one discard for every cod retained
year on year we drive down tacs and push up the discards as a result and so perpetuate this self-defeating eco-crazy policy
whether a cod is retained or discarded it reduces the biomass
increase the tacs and i believe you will correspondingly reduce the discards and swell the food supply without depleting the biomass more than we do at present through discards
that i believe is the way to go along with cod avoidance plans and then some sense might come to this policy
