Industrial fisheries and the production of fishmeal

The European Parliament adopted a resolution based on the own-initiative report by Struan STEVENSON (EPP-ED, UK) on industrial fisheries and the production of fishmeal and fish oil.

The Parliament stressed that there is no scientific evidence to support banning fishmeal on the grounds that it may transmit BSE or other TSEs and that there are no ethical reasons for prohibiting the use of fishmeal in EU ruminants' diets. It therefore called on the Commission and Council to lift the ban on feeding fishmeal and fish oil to ruminants.

This recommendation is based on the measures in Regulation (EC) No 1923/2006 prohibits the feeding of animal protein to ruminants, but enables the Commission to grant derogations for feeding fishmeal to young ruminants, provided that such derogations are based on a scientific assessment of the dietary needs of young ruminants and follow an assessment of the control aspects. The Parliament recalls its position adopted on 17 May 2006, which provided, in relation to Article 7 of that Regulation, for a derogation allowing, in certain circumstances, the feeding of young animals of ruminant species with proteins derived from fish.

The Parliament expressed concern about the problem of discards from marine fisheries, which is estimated in Europe to account for up to 1 million tonnes annually. It called on the Commission to carry out studies and/or pilot projects to investigate the current situation of discards and the possibilities for their use by the industrial fishing sector in such a way as to ensure that this would not lead to over-exploitation of resources. It also suggested that use of discards by the fishmeal and fish oil industry should be examined by the Commission, in close collaboration with Parliament's Fisheries Committee, given the swiftly expanding EU aquaculture sector (fishmeal and fish oil are used as a basic feed stock for farmed fish).