A trial period last year on dozens of vessels showed that Danish fishermen no longer discard undersized catches at sea, but (as legally required) bring them ashore. The weight of that catch must also count toward the allowed maximum catch quotas and must therefore be weighed at the fish auction.
To prevent bycatch from being thrown away, the previous Danish Fisheries Minister Rasmus Prehn (S) introduced the requirement that a camera must record the sorting table on the trawlers. This has been effective, as confirmed by data from the Fisheries Agency.
After starting monitoring 65 Danish fishing trawlers, the recorded (landed) bycatch of cod has increased ninefold, and the bycatch of haddock rose by 6300 percent, writes a Danish newspaper.
These large differences have been described as remarkable by Danish environmentalists, who are very critical of the government's decision to drop the camera requirement.
"I do not want to build an extra surveillance state, but to free the fisheries. They gain benefits by keeping the camera," Minister Jensen told the Danish newspaper Politiken.
The chairman of the Danish Fishermen’s Association himself says that "some fishermen have now become accustomed to the cameras in the ship’s workspaces."
Within the European Union, work is underway on an EU regulation for (mandatory) camera surveillance on large fishing vessels (longer than 18 meters). That legislative proposal has already passed the European Parliament but still needs to be finalized.