Call for action to restrict foreign fishing fleets
● Overseas fishers driving rise in litter from fishing gear ● Locals edged out
Fishermen in the far north of Scotland are calling on Scottish ministers to take urgent action to regulate the activities of foreign crews, who they say are causing hazardous plastic pollution and blocking local fishing grounds.
Skippers in Shetland claim the local fleet and the marine environment are suffering due to a major rise in the number of gill-netting and longline fishing boats coming into Scottish waters from overseas.
They say numbers around Shetland have doubled in the past two years, with foreign boats working ever closer inshore and restricting movement of other vessels – sometimes across hundreds of square miles.
The situation, which is completely legal under EU laws, has raised concern over the increasing amount of lost gear entering the ocean, where it can kill marine wildlife and damage vessels.
The Shetland Fishermen’s Association (SFA) has reported scores of local boats hauling up fine mesh twine in their own nets, with others having toabandonworkandreturnto port for costly repairs caused by entanglements.
“At a time when the public is rightly concerned about the amount of plastic dumped in the sea it is particularly galling for our skippers to be forced off local fishing grounds by vessels that leave so much rubbish behind,” said SFA executive officer Simon Collins.
“We urge the Scottish government to regulate these vessels’ access to our waters as soon as it can do so once we leave the Common Fisheries Policy, as part of the normal cycle of negotiations between coastal states. In the meantime we need the authorities to use the powers they do have to limit the damage.”
Fishing is one of Shetland’s key industries, worth nearly £70 million a year.
Gill nets and longline gear are no longer used by Scottish crews as they are considered less environmentally friendly than other methods.
Nick Underdown, from sustainable fisheries campaign group Open Seas, says conflict at sea is always “bad news”.
He added: “Our environment is the major victim, whether it’s ghost fishing from set nets or damage to the seabed by bottom-trawling.
“It exposes the urgent need for improved management that allocates fishing opportunity preferentially to the most sustainable fishing methods.”