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Conservation Group: US Fishermen Waste $1B in Edible Fish Each Year


FILE - A man walks on a dockat Fishermen's Terminal in Seattle, Washington, July 2, 2010.
FILE - A man walks on a dockat Fishermen's Terminal in Seattle, Washington, July 2, 2010.

A global conservation group says U.S. fishermen throw away about $1 billion in edible fish every year.

The report by the group Oceana says they are not tossing out so-called trash fish, they are throwing away meals.

The discarded fish include such commercially viable species as South Atlantic trout, New England scallops and Alaskan halibut.

Fishermen call this "by-catch," fish that they did not mean to catch -- pulled out of the waters while they were looking for something else.

Oceana is proposing various economic incentives for fishermen who reel-in "by-catch," including a new tax and better equipment to avoid catching unwanted fish.

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