Fishing chiefs reject call for stocks action

Pressure group urges UK leaders to step in

Pressure group Oceana has urged the UK Government to commit to sustainable fishing and warned a battle over “Brexit fish pie” threatens stocks.

But Scottish fishing insiders say Oceana’s demands for an amendment to the Fisheries Bill currently making its way through Parliament are “nonsense”, while industry chiefs have spelled out the need for flexible rules after the UK quits the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy (CFP).

Casting doubt on UK Government assertions it will put in place “world-leading” fisheries management, Oceana said the Bill – which reaches the report stage in the House of Lords on Monday – would “allow overfishing to continue”.

According to Oceana, four out of 10 stocks around the UK are “still overfished”.

It wants to see the maximum sustainable yield (MSY) – “the best internationally agreed management standard” and a key plank of the CFP – put at the heart of the Bill.

The key measure is meant to guide fishing quotas in the EU but policymakers often set catch limits above it.

Melissa Moore, head of UK policy, Oceana, said: “All eyes are on the UK to see if they can manage fishing better outside the EU, but they are not going to succeed if they refuse to commit to a sustainable catch limit.

“As the EU and UK fight for a bigger share of the post-Brexit fish pie, with the UK wanting to increase its quota and the EU wanting to maintain its share, there is an increased likelihood of overfishing.”

Scottish Fishermen’s Federation chief executive Elspeth Macdonald has highlighted flaws of a strict adherence to MSY in a new submission to the Lords. She said: “If this had been applied to demersal (white-fish) fisheries in the North Sea this year, the UK industry... would have been very quickly constrained by ‘choke’ species.

“The fleet would have been unable to fish for many months of the year because they would have exhausted their quota for one species – cod. This demonstrates the danger of applying measures based on theory without considering the practical consequences in a mixed fishery.”

A UK Government spokesman said: “The UK has long championed the conservation of the marine environment and we are working hard to set a gold standard for sustainable fishing around the world.

“As we become an independent coastal state, the government will remain committed to sustainable fishing and our flagship Fisheries Bill enshrines that commitment in law.”

“The fleet would have been unable to fish for many months”

Scottish trawlermen have seldom had to look far for someone telling them how to do their jobs and run their industry. During the Common Fisheries Policy era of the past four decades or so they have dealt with swingeing quota cuts, draconian days-at-sea restrictions, rounds of decommissioning and a mountain of red tape.

All the while – and despite their pioneering conservation work – they have been sniped at by pressure groups, accused of over-fishing, and watched helplessly as vessels from other EU member states have plundered their traditional grounds.

It remains to be seen if the post-Brexit regime in Scotland’s waters will herald the bright new era for the industry promised during the referendum campaign four years ago.

But what the UK Government must do at the very least is reject efforts by outside forces – in this case the environmental group Oceana – to tamper with the new Fisheries Bill in any way which will undermine the fleet’s chances of thriving.

A simplistic approach to managing stocks will not work in the mixed fisheries of the North Sea and Scotland’s west coast waters.

Oceana’s call for a “maximum sustainable yield” in these grounds should be dismissed for pie in the sky.

“They have been sniped at by pressure groups, accused of over-fishing and more”

Elspeth Macdonald