24 April, 2008

A SHETLAND fishing port on the isle of Yell has joined a national project tackling marine litter.

The ‘Fishing for Litter Scotland’ (FLS) initiative registers fishing vessels to bring bags of marine rubbish ashore at certain harbours where it will be collected for disposal.

Cullivoe, which was named Shetland’s third designated port for fish landings behind Lerwick and Scalloway, has now joined them as a member of the FLS project.

The harbour has been attracting an increasing number of vessels as a convenient landing point close to the fishing grounds, allowing boats to return to catching fish quickly.

It is the 15th port to join Fishing for Litter, which is co-ordinated by green lobby group KIMO UK which represents coastal local authorities in northern Europe.

The three year project has already been a great success with more than 110 vessels participating and about 100 tonnes of marine litter being collected to date.

Project coordinator Rick Nickerson said he was delighted that Cullivoe had joined the scheme.

“Since achieving its designated status an increasing amount of boats are taking advantage of the facilities there to reduce their travel times to Lerwick and thus their days at sea,” he said.

“It is important that the scheme has a wide as possible geographical coverage to allow boats to participate.”

The rubbish landed at Cullivoe will be collected by Shetland Amenity Trust through their north isles environmental improvement squad.