Atlantic mackerel. (Photo: Stock File)
Mackerel strong cut raises Scottish uncertainty over assessment model
(UNITED KINGDOM, 10/2/2018)
The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) advises on a 70 per cent of north-east Atlantic mackeral catches in 2019 due to “high fishing pressure” combined with low recruitments in 2015 and 2016, resulting in spawning-stock biomass falling below desired levels.
After learning about the recommendation, the Scottish Pelagic Fishermen’s Association expressed doubts about the accuracy of this year’s scientific mackerel stock assessment due to concerns over how the assessment model uses data from tagged mackerel.
“Tagged mackerel data has only been used in the assessment process in recent times, and because its data shows a much higher biomass reduction, it is at odds from other data in the scientific process and throws doubt on the overall stock assessment. The ICES perception of the stock is also contrary to that witnessed by fishermen on the fishing grounds,” said the Association’s chief executive Ian Gatt.
The Scottish executive explained that the assessment is also using updated egg survey information from two years ago and that as a responsible industry, the association is committed to ensuring a sustainable fishery, and will be working with its partners in the EU, Norway and Faroes on how they can all work closely together to aid this process of ensuring the best possible science when assessing the stock.
Ian Gatt, President of the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation. (Photo: SFF)
“We are also committed to working with Scottish and UK Governments and Coastal States fisheries managers to find an acceptable solution to managing the 2019 fishery,” Gatt stressed.
Meanwhile, ICES has admitted its mackerel stock assessment is less than perfect because of its sensitivity to survey data sources that are relatively new and vary from year to year.
At the same time, a YouGov poll commissioned by the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation (SFF) has found 63.5 per cent of UK voters favour a bigger catch for the domestic industry in British waters after Brexit.
Academics say about 60 per cent of fish and shellfish, by weight, is caught in Britain’s exclusive economic zone – an area extending up to 200 nautical miles from the coast – by non-UK vessels.
SFF’s poll also showed voters rank fisheries as the UK economic sector most likely to benefit from Brexit, with 59 per cent of those with a view saying it would.
“It has been evident to those within the industry in the UK for many years that the system is inequitable. We have some of the best fishing grounds in the world, yet the straitjacket that is the CFP (Common Fisheries Policy) prevents our boats from catching even a majority of the quota in our own waters,” stressed Bertie Armstrong, the federation’s chief executive.
Armstrong insists that must end with Brexit, and it is pleasing that the public recognise the validity of the arguments about grasping the sea of opportunity to ensure that fishing is one of the biggest beneficiaries of Brexit across the UK economy.
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