Abstract
Discarding fish has been a part of the fisheries for centuries but it has been very difficult to monitor how much is discarded, especially in areas where it is an illegal activity. In this study the ecological and economic effects of discarding were investigated using the Atlantis model for Icelandic waters. Five different scenarios were compared, using different discarding rates and selectivities. The results showed that a complete stop of discarding fish (cod and haddock) and landing everything instead had little ecological and economic impact. Improved selectivity, which would result in not catching the fish that would be discarded, had great beneficial economic effects. The increase in biomass led to higher landings, which consequently led to higher revenue. Also, the cost decreased with increasing biomass, which increased the profit of the fisheries. None of the five scenarios had great ecological effects but only discarding of cod and haddock, which have low discard rates, were considered in this study.
Highlights
Discarding has been a part of fisheries for centuries and is still carried out even where there is a discard ban (Alverson et al 1994, Pálsson 2002)
The results showed that a complete stop of discarding fish and landing everything instead had little ecological and economic impact
The simulated discard rate for the status quo scenario was on average 1% and 7% by weight and 11% and 23% by numbers for cod and haddock, respectively (Fig. 6). This corresponds to an average of 9.3 million individual cod and 11.5 million haddock being discarded annually
Summary
Discarding has been a part of fisheries for centuries and is still carried out even where there is a discard ban (Alverson et al 1994, Pálsson 2002). Fishers usually discard fish for economic reasons or to comply with regulations (Kelleher 2005, Eliasen et al 2014). They discard small target species to 1) increase revenue where larger fish have a higher price, or 2) avoid penalties from minimum landing size requirements. They discard non-target species that 1) have no commercial value or, 2) are not subject to quotas.
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