19 January 2008

SHETLAND’S pelagic fishing industry was showcased to a visiting party of Dutch and German journalists this week.

The group are on a tour of Scotland to discuss plans by the Scottish Pelagic Sustainability Group (SPSG) to achieve Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) accreditation for Western mackerel and North Sea herring stocks.

The SPSG want their stocks to be recognised as sustainable and well managed fisheries.

The delegation toured vessels and processing units to see how the UK industry handles a fresh product from the point of catch and seemed impressed by the whole operation.

Bjorn Marnau of Eurofish said: “This was a fascinating visit that gave us a whole new insight into the Scottish industry, especially the way the fish is handled fresh onboard the vessels and during the pumping ashore process.

“We hope that it may open up new business opportunities for companies in Scotland and Shetland with Dutch and German retailers and wholesalers.”

SPSG chair and director of Shetland Catch John Goodlad said: “Our vessels have refrigerated seawater tanks which ensure that fish quality is continually maintained until it is pumped ashore into state of the art factories for immediate processing.

“This is a very different system to that used in the Netherlands and Germany, where vessels deliver frozen at sea fish to onshore processing units.”