The Scottish Fishermen’s Federation has said that the ‘End of the Line’, documentary portrays an excessively gloomy and over-simplistic picture of global fish stocks – and that it fails to reflect the true situation in Scottish waters where fishermen are a taking leading role in ensuring a sustainable future for food production from the sea.
Bertie Armstrong, SFF chief executive, says: “We are not complacent and we do recognise that there are problems to be tackled. This is why Scottish fishermen have been taking the lead in ensuring that stock conservation and sustainable fishing are at the very heart of our operation.
“It is not appropriate for the film to draw overall and therefore superficial conclusions from global statistics and then infer they apply everywhere. There are huge regional differences and in general terms in Scotland, a recovery of stocks, including North Sea cod, has been underway in response to real measures by the Scottish fleet. A major focus of the film is on bluefin tuna, which of course does not exist in our waters. There is no doubt that some fish stocks around the world are in an imperilled state and require urgent remedial action. Consistent progress in Scottish waters points towards the way that this may be achieved.
“Almost all of our main fish stocks have either achieved Marine Stewardship Council independent accreditation or are in the process of becoming accredited as being a sustainable and well managed resource. The majority of the Scottish fleet is also part of the Seafish Responsible Fishing scheme, signalling our commitment to a sustainable future.”
He concludes: “We recognise that consistent, meaningful, practical work is required to ensure the sustainable harvesting of food from the sea. Our future depends on it and the public can depend on the Scottish fishing industry to do it. The “End of the Line” has been described as an inconvenient truth about our oceans. The inconvenient truth for the film is that the tide has turned in the waters around Scotland – is that mentioned?”
