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Tavish Scott |
LIBERAL Democrat MSP for Shetland, Tavish Scott, is backing Shetland’s fishermen by bidding for immediate action to ease the North Sea whiting quota situation.
Mr Scott said the fishery is in disarray because fishermen are catching far more fish than they allowed to land, due to the significant cut in TAC agreed at last December’s Fisheries Council.
Mr Scott has told the minister that Shetland Fish Producers Organisation (SFPO) has advised him that the 25 per cent reduction in North Sea whiting TAC, is now being questioned in many quarters for its validity.
The SFPO had said that the cut in this year’s TAC flies in the face of the reality witnessed at sea by fishermen the length and breadth of the British isles and that the North Sea whiting fishery “is now pretty much in total disarray, simply because of the amount of whiting that is being unavoidably caught”.
Commenting, Mr Scott said: "This issue came to light when one of Shetland’s remaining small inshore boats came to me because they were struggling to survive on their reduced whiting quota, whiting being a vital fishery for them.
"When I looked into this, the SFPO confirmed that there was a problem and that it was hitting boats right across the fleet.
"Recent years have seen some improvements in the relationship between fishermen and fisheries scientists, but this will all be undermined if fishermen are forced to dump large quantities of fish which they are not able to land because the scientists’ assessment is that they are not there to catch.
"This is why I give my full backing to the SFPO’s call for serious effort, between now and the run up to this year’s Fisheries Council, to assess the position.
"Fisheries officers and scientists need to assess the fishery as a matter of urgency, in order to collect the necessary data needed to back a powerful case for a much higher North Sea whiting TAC for next year."
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