Caught on camera: Widespread direct evidence of illegal discards in coastal waters of the Western Baltic Sea
- Schubert, Philipp R.
- Karez, Rolf
- Reusch, Thorsten B. H.
DOIAbstract
Most fish stocks in the European Union (EU) are still being overfished. One recent measure of the EU common fisheries policy to curb overfishing is the introduction of landing obligations that are meant to reduce discards, but the success of landing obligations is controversial, as discards still take place. In the German Western Baltic Sea , discards are currently estimated using ship observer data, but vessels <12 m are not sufficiently controlled. We here use an independent method and document widespread discard of undersized cod and flatfish in late summer 2018 using video transects. Discards along the coastline of the south-western Baltic Sea amount to an extrapolated 14.0 t of cod and 1.0 t of flatfish decomposing on the sea floor in ...
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