Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing tagging for trawler fishing nets to identify the source of sea litter when those nets are washed up onshore.

The Government is committed to reducing plastic litter in the marine environment from all sources, including fishing. Governance is in place to address waste, including plastic, and there are voluntary schemes run here in the UK to encourage good practice.

For the purposes of fisheries enforcement, guidance is in place that requires masters of a fishing vessel using static gear or beam trawls to mark their fishing gear so that it is identifiable. If all or part of their gear is lost they must attempt to retrieve it as soon as possible. This would include trawler fishing nets. If they are unable to retrieve their lost gear they must notify the UK fisheries authorities.

At the 33rd Session of the Committee on Fisheries for the Food and Agricultural Organization, the issue of marine litter, and in particular lost or discarded fishing gear, was discussed at length. The UK supports the Committee’s endorsement of voluntary guidelines for the marking of fishing gear, which assist fisheries management organisations such as regional fisheries management organisations in the development and application of gear marking policy.

Work is now underway to begin the development of an extended producer responsibility scheme for fishing gear containing plastic. This will require producers to take responsibility for gear at the end of life stage, and schemes will be in place across the EU under the European Plastics Strategy.