The Scottish Pelagic Fishermen’s Association (SPFA) has backed the announcement by Scottish Fisheries Secretary Richard Lochhead that an international mediator should be appointed to help end the mackerel fishery stalemate with Iceland and the Faroes.
Ian Gatt, chief executive of the SPFA, said: “We would welcome any initiative that brings this dispute to a speedy and fair conclusion, and we would be keen to meet the Minister to hear about his proposals in more detail. However, we did get legal advice last year on the possibility of using an independent arbiter and we were told that the parties involved would not be legally bound by the results of such a process.”
The organisation believes that the best approach is for the immediate introduction of sanctions against Iceland and the Faroes for their “grossly over-inflated unilateral quotas to help focus minds and bring about a resumption in negotiations.”
And it’s not just mackerel that there’s a stalemate with. Both the SPFA and the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation (SFF) have condemned the Faroese for deciding to withdraw from international sharing arrangements for the Atlanto-Scandian herring stock this week.
At talks in London on Tuesday, the Faroe Islands made the decision to walk away from the international management of the stock and instead set its own unilateral quota – this is despite the fact that the other parties, the EU, Iceland, Norway and Russia have agreed to continue to participate collectively under the agreed management plan.
