This has been underlined by the Scottish White Fish Producers' Association in a paper setting out their priorities for the fund.

The association says that five proposed priority areas for EFF grant assistance take a comprehensive but general view of the areas of the Scottish fishing industry that are likely to be extremely important over the next few years.

However, there are issues which require to be addressed when considering both individual business and generic industry sector grant applications.

And association secretary George MacRae emphasises :

“It is essential that training across the industry is looked at in respect of every grant application to establish the extent of training if any, that might be required to enhance the benefits both public and private grant assistance will give to individual applications." In many instances the benefits from a successful grant application would be enhanced by a grant award being conditional on the applicant undertaking quality training and the extent of such training, if any, can and should be properly assessed as part of the consideration of any application for grant assistance.

Meanwhile, it is important that youngsters from Scottish coastal communities are encouraged to join the industry undertaking mandatory and relevant training to develop their skills. Raising the status of fishing dependent communities around Scotland is now a priority for the current Holyrood administration and the requirements of the catching sector in respect of recruitment chime with that policy which is still being developed.

" Recruitment/training therefore has to be given a priority within the catching sector as young blood coming into our industry from our coastal communities is essential to stabilise the fabric and economic structure of these communities."

All sectors of the fishing industry, but particularly the catching sector, are beset by problems associated with fuel costs. Within the catching sector the problems are so great, Mr MacRae goes on, that if the current position of almost uncontrolled spiralling fuel costs continues then it is anticipated many vessels will be unable to go to sea with ensuing economic problems for these vessel businesses and also for other businesses ashore including the processing and vessel maintenance sectors.

" It is essential therefore that in the EFF programme top priority is given in terms of overall grant fund allocation to addressing as many issues as possible relating to fuel efficiency and general operational cost savings to achieve significant reductions in fuel consumption/overall costs. These areas could include engine/vessel design, gear technology and other issues.

"The catching sector must also continue to provide a top quality product and the Scottish led initiative of attempting to obtain Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) accreditation for a number of stocks around the Scottish coasts including North Sea haddock/nephrops is seen as a major step towards enhancing the marketing capability for Scottish fish achieving that accreditation. It is essential that the catching sector tries to achieve ever improving price for the raw product and encouragement has to be given to the industry generally but particularly our organisations charged with marketing responsibilities of enhancing our existing markets and developing new ones for a top quality nutritional product. The huge growing demand world wide for top quality food is well known but improving the price for the raw product to fishermen and then equally improving the price for the product to which value has been added by our fish processors must also be a top priority for EFF grant assistance.

"The draft operational plan for EFF does demand, both implicitly and expressly, that the future fish catching activities of the Scottish fleet comply with environmental criteria and environmental impact assessments will be required for many if not all applications for EFF grant assistance. Whilst the words 'environmental criteria' can mean almost anything without greater definition, there is little doubt that the catching sector faces monumental challenges over the next few years to try and satisfy even those environmental demands which are sensible and realistic. The anticipated passage of the Marine Bill into legislation during the next Parliamentary Session at Westminster means that Scottish vessels beyond 12 nautical miles out to 200 miles will be subject to the terms of that Bill which is very heavily weighted in favour of all marine activity complying with as yet undetermined (possibly being defined by secondary legislation) environmental criteria. These criteria will certainly be directly linked to existing and known environmental demands and others which may emanate from future scientific research but grant assistance will require to be available for adjustments/alterations to be made to vessels, their gear and some operational practices. The potential impact of the Marine Bill on commercial sea fishing cannot be underestimated and certainly many within the catching sector are persuaded that the impacts of the Marine Bill will have a significant detrimental affect on the activities of our fishing fleet. Economic/social impact assessments will inevitably be required for likely heavy environmental influences on existing and developing Scottish/UK fishing activity. These assessments must be provided by environmentalist interests at their cost and not be a financial burden on the EFF fund or the Fishing Industry. Again, funds will require to be available for addressing obligatory environmental demands made of our fleet based on the extensive powers proposed to be given within the Marine Bill to the new Marine Management Organisation. The same comments of course are relevant for the proposed Scottish Marine Bill which will cover the area around our coast out to 12 nautical miles."

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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