Hans J Marter

20 December, 2008

MANAGING the Shetland fishing industry will be tough next year following the outcome of this week’s crunch EU talks on quotas and days at sea.

The deal was struck after a long and hard fight over the final piece of the jigsaw at the European Union’s fisheries council in Brussels.

The Shetland fleet must now follow agreements reached under three separate deals – last month’s cod recovery plan, this month’s EU/Norway deal on North Sea catches and the results of yesterday’s wheeling and dealing at the EU fisheries council.

Yesterday’s settlement allowing boats to catch prawns and white fish off the Scottish west coast was greeted with relief, especially on the west coast where hundreds of jobs were under threat.

However strict conservation measures such as wider mesh sizes and escape panels will make the act of catching fish more difficult.

Speaking from Brussels airport yesterday afternoon (Friday), Shetland Fishermen's Association chief executive Hansen Black said Europe’s initial proposal for a west coast ban fishing had been unrealistic from the start.

He said it simply underlined the political nature of the talks that were vital for the livelihood of so many coastal communities.

Under the new cod recovery plan, fishermen have to reduce mortality by 25 per cent, by reducing effort through conservation credits, real time closures or reduced days at sea.

Meanwhile the North Sea cod quota has been increased by 30 per cent on condition that all marketable cod caught is landed.

Yesterday the monkfish quota for the North Sea was left unchanged, while west coast monkfish was increased by eight per cent. The picture for megrim is similar with a slight increase in the west coast and no change for the North Sea.

Mr Black said the Shetland delegation was particularly disappointed there had been no increase in the valuable North Sea megrim quota, despite the science supporting such a move.

Haddock had already been reduced by 11 per cent in the EU/Norway negotiations, but due to the uptake of just over 80 per cent of this year's quota, fishermen will be able to catch the same amount of the species next year.

Mr Black said: "This is extremely complicated. One of the messages we tried to get across this last few days was that conservation measures need to be simplistic and understandable. They need to do one thing at a time and do it right as opposed to a raft of measures.

"The talks will start again in January on how to manage the effort with real time closures to achieve the reduction in mortality on cod, while at the same time enabling the fleet to catch fish and be profitable. Otherwise there is no point in having healthy stocks and a fishing industry."

Whilst welcoming the continuation of fishing on the west coast, Scottish Fishermen’s Federation chief executive Bertie Armstrong underlined that the new trawl selectivity and other conservation measures represented a difficult challenge for Scottish fishermen.

"One important outcome from these talks has been a change in the way that fisheries are now being managed,” he said.

“The Scottish industry has been at the vanguard of initiatives that ensure fishermen adopt measures to avoid catching unwanted fish in the first place, rather than the traditional control measures of tighter quotas and other restrictions, which can simply lead to discarding.

"In the North Sea, there are possible rewards in this as it gives the potential for fishermen to catch less and land more. However the changes will present a real challenge, where additional closures and the expensive requirement to rapidly develop more selective gear will prove difficult."

Scottish fisheries secretary Richard Lochhead said the final deal represented a "mixed bag", adding that he and his team had stood up for Scotland.

"Fishing is part of the social and economic fabric of Scotland. That's why this year we have invested a monumental amount of time and effort in the annual round of European talks to deliver the best possible deal for the industry and the communities they support.

"We have worked in partnership with the industry - this week they have been alongside us in large numbers - and together Team Scotland has secured a package of measures which are blazing a trail in Europe.

"In the current economic climate, a secure future for this vital industry has never been more important."

On the pelagic front, the north east Atlantic mackerel quota has been increased by 33 per cent while North Sea herring was cut by 15 per cent during the EU/Norway negotiations.