Discards

Discards are the part of a catch thrown back at sea, whether undersized fish, non-target species, or fish over quota, and a large share die from handling stress or barotrauma. The waste skews stock assessments because discarded mortality goes unrecorded unless observers or cameras document it. The EU’s landing obligation, phased in from 2015 to 2019 under the Common Fisheries Policy, banned discarding of quota species to force selectivity improvements and honest accounting.