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Download of mackerel catches. (Photo: Larry Hartwell)
Scottish fishermen call for fairer deal with Faroe Islands
(UNITED KINGDOM, 1/20/2017)
Scotland's mackerel fishermen and processors are calling on the European Union to reduce access to vessels in the Faroe Islands authorized to fish in Scottish waters.
The EU-Faroe Islands agreement, negotiated for the first time in 2014, provides for an exchange of quotas and an access agreement, and allows Faroese vessels to extract part of their mackerel and blue whiting quotas in EU waters, instead than in their waters. In return, Community vessels may extract part of their quota for these species in Faroese waters.
However, the Scottish pelagic sector maintains that the bilateral deal is heavily skewed in favour of the Faroe Islands.
This position is backed-up by a report recently published by Seafish which reveals that in 2015, Faroese boats caught almost 33,000 tonnes of mackerel in EU (mainly Scottish) waters, compared to Scottish boats landing no mackerel at all from Faroese waters.
Talks that should have been held in Brussels on 6 and 7 December to finalize the EU/Faroe Islands bilateral agreement for 2017 are still pending, and Scottish mackerel fishermen call for the negotiation of a fairer access agreement.
“We want the new agreement for 2017 to ensure there is a reduction in the access arrangements for the Faroese to fish their quota for mackerel in our waters,” Ian Gatt, chief executive of the Scottish Pelagic Fishermen’s Association (SPFA), said.
“There is a distinct lack of benefit to the UK, along with the additional costs of monitoring and enforcing Faroese access into our waters,” he added.
For his part, Ian McFadden of the Scottish Pelagic Processors Association (SPPA) explained that they were extremely concerned about the current access arrangements because the quality of mackerel is better in Scottish waters.
“Furthermore, Faroese boats are financially penalised by their own Government if they land this mackerel into Scotland,” the leader highlighted.
“This means that Faroese processors are benefiting from fish caught in Scottish seas to the detriment of our own processing industry based in Shetland and the north-east of Scotland,” McFadden concluded.
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