Fishermen must be incentivised to collect marine litter – Ni Riada

Fishermen need to be better incentivised to gather marine litter while they’re out at sea. That’s the advice from the Sinn Fein MEP Liadh Ni Riada, who’s on the European Parliament’s Fisheries Committee. Her calls follow proposals published by the European Commission last Monday to ban single-use plastic products such as cotton buds and plastic plates and straws by 2021. The commission wants to ban ten products that together with discarded plastic fishing gear, account for around seventy percent (70%) of all marine litter.

Plastic waste in the world’s oceans has become a major issue with scientists warning of their effect on the food chain. Liadh Ni Riada wants fishermen to be given a single boat payment to incentivise them to collect marine litter.

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