The Scottish Fishermen’s Federation (SFF) will tell a joint hearing of the European Parliament on future maritime policy that responsibility and balance are the key ingredients for success.
The meeting, which is being held tomorrow in Brussels (20 March), will look at how the EU should move towards a Future Maritime Policy for the Union.
SFF chief executive Bertie Armstrong will be speaking at the meeting on behalf of the fishing industry.
He said: “I have two keywords for fishing’s stake in a future Maritime Policy: responsibility and balance.
“The responsibility to be shouldered is to make the sustainable harvesting of a renewable food resource an objective in itself – too often it is demoted to the status of a by-product by an excessively precautionary approach.
“Which leads me straight on to the word balance: you will find no more enthusiastic supporter of a healthy marine environment than the Scottish fishing industry – our future depends on it – but all actions to maintain it need to be realistic, science based and take all factors into account.”
Mr Armstrong said that the fishing industry always seemed to attract the most attention when it came to drafting marine policy whilst other stakeholders – most notably the oil and gas industries – seemed to escape this focus, possibly because of their economic importance.
“This is certainly the case within the UK in the forthcoming Marine Bill,” said Mr Armstrong.
“The tendency is to place a disproportionate and scientifically unsupported focus for action on the fishing industry. However, this doesn’t detract from the determination of the Scottish fishing industry to take its rightful place as a responsible, compliant heritage industry, sustainably harvesting a superb natural resource.”
