Pete Bevington

25 April, 2008

A SHETLAND fisherman was ordered to pay £3,000 at Lerwick Sheriff Court yesterday (Thursday) after he admitted breaching regulations designed to protect the islands’ shellfish stocks.

Stanley Gray, of Brunatwat, Walls, was dragging 12 dredges just over a mile south east of Bressay isle during the night of 1 February last year in his scallop dredger Amazon.

His actions breached the Shetland Islands Regulatory Fishery (Scotland) Order of 1999, which restricts scallop fishermen to 10 dredges and imposes a curfew between 9pm and 6am every day within the six mile limit.

The 47 year old disputed that the regulations were legal under European fisheries law. Yesterday he told the court: “In my opinion where I was fishing at the time I wasn’t breaking any European rules or regulations.”

However Mr Gray changed his plea to guilty after his lawyer Tommy Allan said he could not defend his position of not guilty.

Procurator fiscal Duncan Mackenzie said the skipper had a licence from the Shetland Shellfish Management Organisation (SSMO), which manages the fishery, and therefore he knew the rules.

Mr Mackenzie said he had been “less than frank” with the fisheries protection officers who boarded his vessel and could give no evidence that he was so far inshore because a wire had caught up with his dredges.

According to Mr Allan, who represented Mr Gray once he changed his plea, the Amazon had been fishing at night to make up time lost during bad weather, as was common practice among other vessels.

“He feels like he has not been dealt with fairly and he didn’t feel he was breaking any EC law as his fishing licence doesn’t contain any mention of the restrictions which are contained in the SSMO order.”

As a result of last year’s incident Mr Gray had sold the Amazon, because “he couldn’t keep three men in work in the face of mounting fuel costs and battling with the SSMO over where he was allowed to fish”.

Since then he has bought a smaller vessel, the Galwad Y Mor, with a less valuable licence to catch prawns which he crews with four men including himself and his two sons.

Sheriff Graeme Napier ordered Gray to pay £3,000, part of the £3,661.96 value of the catch he landed from his illegal dredging. He also had his gear confiscated.

The sheriff told him to pursue his grievances about the shellfish order either through the courts or the Scottish Parliament.

A petition with 600 signatures protesting against the way the regulating order was being managed to the disadvantage of full time fishermen was presented to the Parliament in 2006, which is still deliberating the issue.

After yesterday’s hearing Mr Gray said he would be joining a delegation of fishermen lobbying Scottish fisheries minister Richard Lochhead during a visit to Shetland next month.

He said he had no problem with the regulating order when it permitted night time fishing and 14 dredges, but now it had become too restrictive. “It seems they can change the rules whenever it suits them and it doesn’t suit everybody and they are phasing out the bigger boats,” he said.

He believes the SSMO has overseen a reduction in the size of Shetland’s shellfish fleet, and reduced the number of scallop processors from six to two.

“Things were better when they were left to the government and we knew where we stood with the law. This has closed the door to a lot of young men getting into the job. With the bank loans and the fuel costs spiralling out of control there’s no future left for it. That’s why I sold the boat,” he said.

However SSMO executive officer Ryan Leith explained the regulating order had been brought in to protect the local shellfish stocks from over exploitation by large vessels from outside the isles, some of which carry as many as 48 dredges.

The rules could only be changed by agreement of the Scottish Government after a one month local consultation, and that since they were introduced in 2000 the Shetland scallop stock had steadily improved, as had velvet crabs and lobsters.

“There is no policy to move towards smaller boats and if anyone wants to modernise their vessels that’s encouraged,” Mr Leith said. He added that the restrictions on processing scallops in Shetland was down to a glut in the European market, and had nothing to do with his organisation.

He said there were 120 boats holding SSMO licences, the “vast majority” of whom support the regulating order.