Scottish Fisheries Secretary, Richard Lochhead. (Photo: YouTube/scottishgovernment)

Report advises how to repair Scottish seas

UNITED KINGDOM
Friday, November 05, 2010, 23:00 (GMT + 9)

Scotland's Fisheries Secretary Richard Lochhead has hailed the new report from the Inquiry into the Future of Fisheries Management (IFFM) on how to repair the injury done to the Scottish seas by the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) in recent decades.

"This is a landmark report that lays out the big challenges ahead in terms of safeguarding our fish stocks and our fishing communities,” he said.

"It rightly refers to Scotland's seas as the 'graveyard for the European Union’s (EU) attempt at management,'" Lochhead remarked. "It also joins the Scottish Government in calling for an end to the 'embarrassment' of 'hugely wasteful' discards and emphasises the good sense of having fishing effort managed regionally rather than by Brussels.”

The independent panel offered 24 recommendations based on submissions from over 80 experts from the fields of industry, science, academia, NGOs, government and EU Commission as well as individuals. He assured the recommendations would be given full consideration and that many steps already taken correspond with the report.

“[…] the Panel now exhorts the Scottish Government - in recognition of Scotland's role as the pre-eminent fishing nation in the UK - to take the lead in establishing a pathfinder initiative with member states to trial a devolved management model. We believe that this management model for the North Sea will deliver rules and regulations in relation to such matters as catch limits, days at sea and discards, etc., which are more appropriate and workable and, importantly, understood and respected as matters deserving of compliance,” the report reads. 

Lochhead informed that the government would scrutinise the findings to determine how to best incorporate the recommendations into establishing a both profitable and sustainable fishing industry.

Innovatively, the report called for the industry to take initiative while considering itself a leader in the marine environment generally rather than the victim of a crisis. Otherwise, it warned, the industry will always be precarious, young people will eschew fishing as an employment of choice, levels of activity and standards of living will wither, and the government will be blamed for the plight of the fishing industry. 

At the same time, the report urges the Scottish Government to push vehemently for institutional reform of the CFP, with particular stress on regionalising the policy, so as to minimise government intervention. 

It also recommended that the fishing industry swiftly embrace the same procedures employed to measure environmental, social and financial valuation of its activities, such as Strategic Environmental Assessment, Environmental Impact Assessment and unbiased data collection procedures.

The independent panel was set up last year to research the outlook of fisheries management in Scotland in response to increasing discontent in the Scottish fishing industry regarding the CFP. The enquiry worked to forge new models of future fisheries management to optimise the Scottish fisheries sector and the benefits for coastal communities and the marine ecosystem.

The inquiry panel is led by Alan Campbell CBE, former chief executive of Aberdeenshire Council and Grampian Regional Council.

Related articles:

- Conservation group releases assessment on Scottish stocks 
- EUR 14 million go to future of Scottish fleet 

By Natalia Real
[email protected]
www.seafood.media

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