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Bertie Armstrong of the SFF. (Photo: YouTube, STVNews/FIS)
SFF urges regulations overhaul; EU and Norway reach a deal
UNITED KINGDOM
Monday, December 06, 2010, 23:50 (GMT + 9)
The Scottish Fishermen’s Federation (SFF) has communicated to the UK Governments as well as the European Commission (EC) that the sliding trend of year-on-year cuts in catching opportunities for the struggling Scottish whitefish and prawn fleets must cease. Pressing and novel change is necessary for fisheries management, the federation added.
SFF’s Bertie Armstrong wrote letters to Scottish Fisheries Minister Richard Lochhead, UK Minister Richard Benyon and European Union (EU) Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki saying that they must seriously strive to design regulations suitable for the complex mixed fisheries where the Scottish fleet operates.
The federation said that the only real fisheries management initiative in recent times apart from the decommissioning of boats has been catch quotas, which although it believes could help management in the future, the scheme contains numerous inherent flaws that could only be fixed thought accompanying changes in management regulations.
“The SFF has made it clear from the beginning that without a fundamental overhaul of the single-species approach to mixed fisheries, catch quotas equate to a suicide pill: the potentially perfect compliance device applied to an unworkable set of rules,” Armstrong said.
The Scottish Government’s initiative has bred progress with the achievement of the “easy half” of the introduction, but the second and much more difficult half of ensuring accompanying rule change has been stagnant.
“Several of the biggest catchers within the present trial have made it very clear to the Federation that the scheme with the currently available amount of fish will simply not work. If this is to alter, then a serious attempt must be made to develop the existing rules to accommodate the complex situation found in mixed fisheries,” Armstrong said.
“The SFF will take the initiative, looking for assistance from scientists, government fisheries managers and the EC,” he went on.
Further, the SFF’s letter said the federation next year will be strongly focusing on the following points:
- Capacity reduction: The fleet has never been smaller. Over the last decade, at first in response to stock recovery needs, the Scottish specific whitefish sector decommissioned 65 per cent of its capacity. Overcapacity has continually been addressed.
- Conservation Culture: The industry has engaged and changed and will continue to do so, up to the point of diminishing return.
- Certification of Fisheries: Well over 60 per cent by value of Scottish fish are now accredited by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC).
Meanwhile, negotiations between the EU and Norway to implement a new bilateral agreement for shared fish stocks management in the North Sea have succeeded. Officials signed a new deal.
"Under the deal Scotland's catch quota scheme, whereby fishermen land everything they catch without the wasteful discards imposed on our fishermen by the EU's flawed Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), will be extended. […] This will enable us to more than double the number of boats participating in the scheme, to around 40,” noted Lochhead.
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- Crucial fisheries debate in Westminster ahead of EU talks
- Third round of mackerel talks fails
By Natalia Real
[email protected]
www.seafood.media
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