A settled policy on fishing in British waters after Brexit is best for us all

I am relieved that Michael Gove has left his blame culture behind. Normal commercial considerations may have been as responsible for his parent leaving the fish trade as much as aspects of the CFP.

Clearly the Danes have reminded him of UK rights to fish in others’ waters as in Norway, Ireland and Spain. The last named features in your Now and Then column about the 1994 ‘tuna wars’ in the Bay of Biscay. As to the waters around the UK, clearly much of the ‘foreign’ catching takes species that their consumers favour or where their catchers have the appropriate fleets, like fishing for fish meal.

I am uneasy about the claim that we don’t have enough processing capacity as a justification for continued Danish access. Our reasons lie in having international agreements to assess and protect the stocks by some system of accepted allocation of fishing entitlements. Enforcement which has played a large, if usually ignored, part in the revival of the North Sea stocks, will continue to be essential. Agreement with other nations on this area will be essential to combat the propensity of some catchers to ignore conservation measures.

These elements will become more important in maintaining the species (mackerel) of supreme importance to Scottish boats and even those who regard Shetland boats as a separate group entitled to run the fisheries in their interest. If we lead in chauvinism, then the administrations of foreign waters may follow suit and deprive us of much of the valuable mackerel catch. The species does go elsewhere first.

LV MCEWAN St Albans Road, Edinburgh

As Michael Gove has sparked anger by promising that Danish fishing vessels would be allowed to catch large amounts of fish in British waters after Brexit (Scotsman, 4 August), I was astonished that the main BBC Scotland TV news bulletin, or indeed the ‘National’ TV news programmes, failed to even mention this – particularly as false Tory claims over the Common Fisheries Policy played a major role during the Brexit referendum and were used to great effect in the North East against the SNP in the recent general election.

As usual the Scottish government was not consulted before Mr Gove’s promises to Denmark and flies in the face of David Mundell’s assurances that control of Scottish waters would be devolved following Brexit.

FRASER GRANT Warrender Park Road, Edinburgh