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Hans J Marter
16 December 2009
SHETLAND's fishing industry is facing another
challenging year after the December fisheries council
concluded in Brussels last night (Tuesday).
While most quotas for fish caught off the Scottish west
coast were cut by between 10 and 25 per cent, local
fishermen will be pleased about a 10 per cent increase for
megrim and a roll over for the valuable monkfish quota.
Interim quotas have been set for joint North Sea stocks such
as cod, haddock, mackerel and herring to allow fishermen to
go to sea before the EU-Norway talks resume in January next
year.
However, access to Norwegian and Faroese waters are blocked
at the moment due to the ongoing dispute with the Norwegians
about access to EU waters to catch their mackerel quota.
Meanwhile the number of days at sea has been cut by 10 per
cent in line with the cod recovery programme agreed last
year.
Some of that reduction in fishing time can be bought back
through real time closures, a conservation measure
successfully introduced by the Scottish government last
year.
Speaking from Brussels this morning (Wednesday), Shetland
Fishermen's Association (SFA) chairman Leslie Tait said it
was always detrimental to fishermen's livelihoods when
politics interfered in these crucial talks.
"All in all it is not a going to be a good year for the
boats due to the cuts in effort," he said.
"It is never good because we will see cuts in haddocks and
herring as part of the EU-Norway talks.
"The Scottish government certainly did their best to fight
our corner during the last two days. We tried for the full
15 per cent increase in megrim and we got 10 per cent.
"It is a shame, because we have done a lot of work on megrim
at the Scalloway college during the last two years. Megrim
is getting quite a valuable species for us, and a 15 per
cent increase had been backed up by science.
"It really was a political thing that we didn't get the full
15 per cent. If politics is playing |
a part in this then 'catch
less and land more' is never a reality, but just semantics."
He also said that the significant cuts in some quotas for
boats off the west coast will have an indirect impact as it
will force more boats to fish in the North Sea.
"The expectations for the EU-Norway talks are for a 15 per
cent cut in haddock, part of a management agreement," he
added.
Scottish fishing minister Richard Lochhead said: "Given the
challenging backdrop, these were always going to be tough
talks. We have fought hard for our fishermen and the outcome
will offer some degree of comfort to parts of our industry.
"After long negotiations, working with the UK, we have
achieved gains for some of our most valuable stocks and
secured interim arrangements to ensure stocks shared with
Norway can still be fished.
"We do not pretend that life will be any less tough for some
vessels, particularly in the whitefish sector. Further cuts
in days at sea, agreed before this council, will be
challenging but as we did last year we will work with our
fishermen to enable them to buy back days in return for
signing up to conservation measures."
The headline results from the talks are:
-
a rollover of quota
for the £46.9 million North Sea prawn (nephrops)
industry, part of Scotland's most valuable fleet
-
a 10 per cent increase
for megrim and a rollover for monkfish - two of the
highest value species; flexibility in the monkfish quota
will allow west coast fishermen to catch an additional
460 tonnes
-
a 25 per cent cut in
west coast haddock (instead of the proposed 54 per cent
reduction)
-
a 15 per cent cut in
the west coast prawn quota
-
'catch less, land
more' trials to tackle discards and boost profitability
-
previously agreed cuts
to days in sea, although an exemption has been secured
for 40 per cent of the west coast prawn fleet (a total
of 67 boats)
-
agreement from the
European Commission to look again at the emergency
technical measures re-imposed on the west coast at the
November Council.
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