With the crucial EU Fish Council talks beginning on the 19 December, the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation (SFF) is warning that any move by the European Commission to cut the catching opportunity for fisheries with a by-catch of cod by 25% would ‘crucify’ the North Sea whitefish fleet and have serious ramifications for the vital prawn (langoustine) sector.
The talks this week in Brussels, which will decide upon the quotas and effort restrictions for the Scottish fleet for 2007, are being overshadowed by the EC proposal to reduce fisheries associated with cod catching in the North Sea by 25% through a combination of quota cuts and a reduction in the number of days-at-sea that boats are allowed to fish.
However, the SFF is calling for a ‘rollover’ of the current quota and effort restrictions into 2007, given that there are signs that the North Sea cod stock is improving and that a full review of the effectiveness of the Cod Recovery Plan is due to begin next year.
Bertie Armstrong, SFF Chief Executive, said: “A final 25% reduction in TACs (total allowable catch) and related effort would simply crucify the sustainable mixed demersal fishery in the North Sea and take away a large chunk of the hard-won viability from the prawn industry.
“The environmental NGOs all repeat the mantra ‘when are we going to heed the ICES advice for zero catch of cod?’ This is, in our view, an irresponsible and superficial sound bite, contributing nothing to the practical, sensible decisions on the management of sustainable fisheries.
“If you ask an environmental scientist the narrow question ‘how to stop fossil-fuel use affecting climate change’ the unavoidable answer will be to ‘shut down world transport and world electricity generation’. Whilst that is the correct answer to that specific question, it makes no contribution to sensible management.
“A much more practical approach, for cod and for the implications of climate change, is to recognise reality and make every effort to move in the right direction as sensibly as possible.
“For cod and its related catches and most especially for fishing effort, a rollover is appropriate for 2007. This takes into account the monumental sacrifices made to date, allows time for them to properly take effect and recognises that a full review of the Cod Recovery Plan is due to begin in 2007.”
Meanwhile, the Federation is also calling for a rollover into 2007 of the 2006 TAC for North Sea and West of Scotland prawns and also for West of Scotland herring. The SFF will be strongly challenging proposals by the Commission for reductions in all these stocks, given the Commission’s own scientific evidence of stock health and sustainable harvesting
Another area of concern is monkfish, where the Commission has failed to recognise the comprehensive and committed efforts by the Scottish fleet in supplying data to back up the science on the state of the stock. This suggested that there was a compelling case for increasing the quota by 10% in the middle of 2006 – but the EC ignored this advice, and the SFF is urging for this increase to be immediately implemented at next week’s Fish Council.
From a Scottish point of view, all the primary target species are in good sustainable health, with the exception of cod. Furthermore, the Scottish whitefish fleet has made a monumental sacrifice over the last six years of being reduced by 65%.
Bertie Armstrong said: “All the target species for the Scottish fleet, excepting cod which is almost exclusively a by-catch, are in a sustainably harvested condition. There must be no mismanagement in the process which sets quota and days-at-sea for this fine industry.”
