FISHING & SHOOTING
One of the classic ploys used by government, employers and just about anyone else trying to put one over on his/her fellow man/woman is the one that cheerily ends with, “and we’ll sort out the details once the broad agreement is in place”.
This is followed by important-sounding rigmarole surrounding parameters and areas of understanding. It’s the classic stitch up, leading to dissension and cock up, as the sea fishing industry is discovering, as shortly will the game fishing industry.
At sea the industry has spent several years trying to point out to Government ministers and the EU in general that simply banning the discarding of overquota fish will not in itself suddenly produce an abundance of healthy sustainable fish stocks.
Desirable as a ban might be – and everyone, particularly fishermen, agreed that it was ludicrous to dump good fish just in order to stay within legal quotas – the devil has always been in the detail.
In Britain it was Hugh Fearnley-whittingstall’s TV series, Hugh’s Fish Fight, plus attendant campaigns
No one has a clue how this will work
across Europe that frightened the politicians, notably the Greek EU Fisheries commissioner, into accepting that a ban must be introduced willy nilly. The British government knew perfectly well that an overnight ban was simply unworkable – the fishermen told them – but went along with it, assuring everyone that the only way forward was to agree the broad principle and sort out the details later.
The discard ban started for herring and mackerel on 1 January and no one has a clue what’s happening. And so to river and loch fishing.
“The Scottish Government are committed to reforming Scotland’s wild fisheries,” says the Holyrood website.
The first bit is to be the introduction of licences which will allow the holder to catch and keep salmon and sea trout. Each fish which is not returned – and 80 per cent overall are returned anyway – will be given a government issue tag.
No one has a clue how this will work or even if it will tell us any more about managing salmon stocks than we know already.
As the number of fish caught in one year is seldom the same as the number caught the following year no one knows on what basis licences and tags can or will be issued at the start of a season, or to whom. The government knows this but says: “The detail of the scheme is not proposed in the consultation document … seeking ‘broad agreement to the principles’ while at the same time ‘working up the detail’ of the measures.” Just like discards at sea. Splendid set of principles but so much codswallop.