A theme session on “Full Retention Fisheries” was held during the 2018 Annual Meeting of the American Fisheries Society in Atlantic City, New Jersey.  The goal of this session was to consider strategies for reduction or elimination of discards worldwide, with particular emphasis on the EU Landing Obligation.  The conveners were also interested in lessons learned from different approaches to managing discards, particularly in Europe, and from the DiscardLess programme. This was with particular emphasis on applying findings to potential developments in North America.

In addition, the session provided an opportunity to showcase the achievements of the DiscardLess project to a primarily North American audience. Conveners were Dave Reid (Ireland, DiscardLess Project), Mike Pol (Massachusetts Department of Marine Resources, USA) and Pingguo He (University of Massachusetts, USA).  Presentations included a detailed description of the LO and the overall work of the DiscardLess Project from Dave Reid, examples of strategies evolving in Ireland in response to requirements under the LO by Julia Calderwood, an overview of the development of discard reduction and elimination strategies in Iceland, discussion of some specific discard and mortality estimation challenges in the NE US, an overview of tools and technologies available for discard reduction, and a summary of discard reduction and elimination strategies employed throughout the world from Bill Karp, on behalf of the DiscardLess Advisory Committee. 

The session was effective in improving outreach regarding the LO and the DiscardLess Project in North America and stimulated a lively and productive discussion on the myriad challenges of managing and reducing discord in the world’s fisheries.

Read more about the session at: https://afs.confex.com/afs/2018/meetingapp.cgi/Session/6787