Jim Portus, chief executive of the South-western Fish Producers Organisation, said that the Bill sets out to provide the necessary framework to enable the marine environment to be managed in a better way that integrates all aspects of marine use and enjoyment.

“For the fishing industry, those management improvements could have arrived sooner. But, better late than never,” he added.

Mr Portus recalled that the “Net Benefits” study commissioned by Tony Blair in January 2003 and the successive documents that followed its publication in March 2004, set out a package of reform measures that would, it claimed, deliver a profitable and competitive fishing industry.

But in the intervening years, the industry has experienced shrinkage and job losses well in excess of the 13% reduction then called for.

Fish quotas have, in general terms, grown from their lowest points as stocks have rebounded.

“Sadly, however, profitability eludes most fishers, especially in the towed-gear sectors, for whom fuel prices have never been higher than they are today," Mr Portus went on.

“As stakeholders, we have supported fully the aims and objectives set out in “Charting a new Course”. We have co-operated with the development of management strategies through workshops and conferences. We have participated in the creation of the Regional Advisory Councils.

“However, at no time have we seen the diminution of weight of heavy-handed bureaucratic machinery that has characterised the past thirty years or so of fisheries management under the Common Fisheries Policy.

“Will that time at last have arrived under the Marine Bill?”

Mr Portus said that the South-western FPO shares with the UK Fisheries Minister the desire for a fishing sector that is sustainable, profitable and supports strong local economies, managed effectively as an integral part of coherent policies for the marine area.

“We welcome the modernising of Sea Fisheries Committees and look forward to the introduction of new powers that will improve the way inshore fisheries and the marine environment are managed.

"We know, however, that approximately 40% of the inshore fisheries waters are already the subjects of spatial and temporal constraints.

"We know also that we must accommodate the inevitable changes that will flow from an ecosystem-based-approach to fisheries and marine resource management. We can but hope that ‘Marine Planning’ takes into account fully the entire panoply of activities already undertaken by the fishing sector.

“There already exists a special relationship between fisheries and conservation. We accept that marine planning and strategic environmental assessments need to take into account the impacts of different types of fishing gear, to avoid significant environmental harm. However, there is also a need to strike a balance that provides a healthy marine environment, sustainable fishing and coastal communities.

“Marine Planning will help in the task of finding that balance, but economic, social and environmental objectives are useless, if the industry becomes so diminished that its critical mass is reached causing collapse of fishing port infrastructures.

“At the moment, confidence in the future is low because of sustained and excessively high input costs. Changes to government policies alone cannot hope to restore higher levels of confidence necessary for long-term investment.

"Our Minister should remember that marine fisheries exploitation is international in nature and the Marine Bill will act upon UK fishermen alone.

"In the long term, it would be far better to have an industry that is properly managed and better regulated trans-nationally than to have a UK industry hamstrung by rigid enforcement and required to pay for that privilege.

“In general, we look forward to the Marine Act and the improvements to the current framework for managing and protecting all marine resources. We will study the Bill with interest and we hope to be pleasantly surprised that it will contain hope for the future of a once-great fishing industry.”

www.fishupdate.com is published by Special Publications. Special Publications also publish FISHupdate magazine, Fish Farmer, the Fish Industry Yearbook, the Scottish Seafood Processors Federation Diary, the Fish Farmer Handbook and a range of wallplanners.

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