Fishing strategy leaves us off hook

SIR,– From the outset it was clear the fishing industry wanted back UK control of our seas. Also, after a slow start, Liam Fox went globetrotting to find new markets and promote deals for the UK postBrexit. With the EU going to decide quotas, and presumably continuing to scoop 60% of available fish for an extended period, you have to wonder what new markets he’s found for our fishermen after all the air miles travelled? That must surely be a measure of his success and signal an end to EU cherrypicking.

Curiously, a huge 3sq km herring hatchery has recently been discovered south of Gairloch in Wester Ross. Harking back to the 1907 herring boom, we cured and exported 2.5million barrels (250,000 tons) to Russia, eastern Europe and Germany, where herring is considered a delicacy. It becomes very difficult not to wonder if this renewed fishery will escape the attention of the EU.

Despite a decade in power and continual wailing about needing more “economic levers” to improve the Scottish economy, the SNP still haven’t grasped the fact that the fishing industry has the potential to lift the Scottish economy and appear to have much the same understanding of fishing as Ted Heath; who was widely thought here in the north-east to view the sea as a playground for his Morning Cloud and other yachts. If the SNP ever had any idea about boosting the economy, it seems to have been forgotten along with their 2007 promise of “delivering faster sustainable economic growth”. Leaving the CFP and boosting the 10 men in employment ashore for every man at sea ratio would “deliver” a huge uplift to all our coastal communities and do something about Scottish percapita GDP which has been flat since 2015.

Sam Coull, Lendrum Terrace, Boddam, Peterhead