The committee is trying to head off further conflict between mobile and static gear fishermen, following proposals by creel fishermen to close an area from Applecross to Loch Hourn to trawlers all year round. The area is currently closed to trawlers from October to April, but the Highland and Islands Fishermen’s Association wants the closure to be made year round to mirror the situation in Loch Torridon. The Mallaig and North-west Fishermen’s Association has challenged the information on which the proposal is based, and claim it would have a serious effect on the livelihoods of their members.

Peter Davidson, secretary of HIFA said: “The Loch Torridon scheme has been so successful that more and more creel fishermen want to fish there putting it under a lot of pressure. A lot of our members want to apply for a wider creel-only zone and the number of trawlers using the area has declined in the past 10 years. There are 49 creel boats who live locally using the waters of the Inner Sound between Raasay and the mainland, and eight local trawlers whose crew live in the area. During the summer when the trawlers are in the area, the creel boats suffer a lot of damage to gear and huge financial losses. In the summer these boats could be fishing in deeper waters.”

The proposed closed area would stretch from north of Applecross, over to Raasay, around the southern tip of Raasay to the Skye coastline and surrounding the island of Scalpay. This would include Loch Carron, Loch Alsh and Loch Duich and would stretch south into the Sound of Sleat to include Loch Hourn.

John Hermse, secretary of the Mallaig and North-west Fishermen’s Association, said that a meeting held in Broadford last Friday had agreed to set up a joint committee involving mobile and static gear representatives to make proposals for managing the fishery.

He said: “We had 20 people at the meeting, which was surprising given the terrible weather we had at the weekend. Another 10 sent in apologies and it was heartening that so many of them were young people prepared to take on the management of the fishery. We have counted 51 trawlers with local connections fishing in this area. We set up a committee with representatives from all over Skye and Lochalsh, and we intend to call another meeting in the first week of March and invite static gear fishermen to join the committee so that we can work together.”

He said that a number of proposals had already been made which would be put to the March meeting. “It is important that everyone is involved in managing this fishery rather than a select few. We want to ask for further scientific research on the six month closure of the area. Initially it was done to protect herring, but there has been little or no recent research on herring in the area. We want some independent research carried out into the nephrops fishery in the area as well. Until now all the research carried out has had a specific aim, rather than being objective and taking an overview of the effects of all types of fisheries,” he said.

Mr Davidson said that the pressure on the area meant that under existing mixed fishery conditions any conservation measures wouldn’t work. “There is no point in the creel boats not landing berried lobsters or having escape hatches on the creels, because the trawlers just come in and sweep them all away. The Scottish Fishery Protection Agency say they don’t have the manpower to police the area, so the simplest solution would be to ban trawlers from the area, and that would be easy enough to police. This will have to be a political decision under the Inshore Fisheries Act and that is why we have put the proposals to the Scottish Government,” he said.

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