Your MEPs for the East of England have voted this week to finally end wasteful fish discards and ensure sustainable fishing across our seas.  For local Conservative MEP Vicky Ford,  this follows many years of campaigning and she believes this is the beginning of new hope for the East Anglian fishing industry.  

The reforms which have been voted on include ending the discarding of healthy fish, bringing more decision making back to the UK from Brussels and enforcing a legal commitment to sustainable fishing.

Speaking after the votes, Vicky Ford said:  "This is fantastic news - not just for the fish and the fishermen, but also for those of us who like a bit of cod and chips from time to time!  I hope this will be the time when the tide finally changes in favour of fish and sustainable local fisheries instead of Brussels-based lunacy. The EU quota systems which mean perfectly edible fish are thrown dead back into the sea is morally abhorrent and I'm very pleased that they will stop.  Furthermore, I have seen how cod is labelled "local" in Lowestoft when actually it has been caught by huge freezer-trawlers in Russia.  In the meantime our local fishermen who are in small boats have no discards, they use lines not nets, which are the most sustainable methods, and yet the Brussels quotas mean they are not allowed to catch the fish.  This is madness.  I only hope these reforms are not too late for our local fishing fleet."