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One the eve of EC Fisheries Council (15 & 16 December) into deciding upon catching opportunity for 2012, the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation is warning that every effort must be focused on ensuring that the fishing fleet is not hit by further cuts in the number of days that vessels can go to sea next year, which as well as being devastating economically would also have a series of knock-on effects that would at a stroke destroy years of hard work by fishermen to conserve stocks.
This year’s December Council is different – normally the tonnage of fish in the Total Allowable Catch and quota regulations is the primary concern of the Scottish industry.
However, this time around Scots fishermen are facing a series of extreme threats associated with other aspects of the regulations, most specifically effort control and the number of days that whitefish and prawn vessels can put to sea. For the pelagic sector, the failure of Iceland and Faroes to act reasonably and achieve a deal on mackerel is causing real concern, which also has a knock-on impact on a small but significant section of the Scottish whitefish industry that has been unable to make use of its entitlement to fish in Faroese waters.
Bertie Armstrong, chief executive of the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation says: “The forthcoming December Fisheries Council will have a different complexion compared with previous years due to the main focus being on effort control and other matters rather than quota cuts. Indeed, many quotas for 2012 are in line for increases due largely to key stocks being under long term management plans that have been further aided by the Scottish fishing fleet spearheading a raft of conservation measures such as real time closures and the use of more selective fishing gears.
“In terms of scientific advice, the likely final decisions at December Council on quantities of fish to catch will reflect the responsible behaviour of the industry over the last few years. Species important to the Scottish industry such as North Sea haddock, whiting and herring will be in line for substantial increases, and for the West of Scotland, a potential increase of some 400% in haddock would be entirely in accordance with scientific advice.
“Effort control, or days at sea for the whitefish and prawn sectors is certain to take centre stage. The EC’s obsession with reductions in days at sea is the hallmark of the failure of the Long Term Plan for cod. Cod is actually recovering, but because of the rigid connection in the plan between effort reduction and fish mortality, and the consequent annual automatic reduction of days, the whitefish and prawn fleets are facing the wholly unworkable prospect of being allowed to fish for only four days every fortnight in 2012, which is now trumped by the threat of considerably heftier reductions due to the EC interpretation of the details in the rules. The spirit of the plan – reduction of fishing mortality on cod – is not being served at all by the letter of the law in reducing days at sea, which has now reached a stage where we are well past the point of sensible returns. Further cuts in days at sea will simply shut down the fleet in its current form.
“Scottish fishermen have taken their responsibilities under the Long Term Plan for Cod very seriously and have been at the forefront of adopting innovative conservation measures to aid stock recovery by reducing cod mortality. We must be allowed the opportunity to continue with such measures rather than being hit with further totally unwarranted restrictions. Cod recovery is important, but the species forms only about 5% or less by value of our total landings. In contrast, the days at sea restrictions resulting from the cod plan critically limit the whole whitefish and prawn fleets, which are sustainably harvesting a range of stocks from the mixed fisheries they operate in. The potential reductions have long since left the realms of common sense as far as fisheries management is concerned, and threatens to remove from the industry the ability to innovate in the interests of conservation and also the incentive to do so.
“There are other areas where there are clear manifestations of all that is wrong with the centralised micro-management of the Common Fisheries Policy. The Commission in the summer laid a policy of automatic 25% reductions for stocks that are technically data poor. This was widely condemned at the time, especially for those stocks where there were sufficient indicators of health but that were short of full assessment. The Commission conceded this point; however, the first proposals for TACs for 2012 contained the auto-reductions anyway, leaving the task of arguing each stock separately and unnecessarily during the packed December Council round. Another example is the emergency catch-composition rules applied in 2009 in the West of Scotland, which, despite being a major source of discarding within a recovered haddock stock, has now left us in an incredibly complex situation that is tied up in legal knots.
“This December Council will begin with a reasonably optimistic set of stock evaluations but a formidable set of legal and technical difficulties to overcome. The future of the Scottish fishing industry depends upon the willingness of the European Commission to face up to its responsibilities and ensure that workable and practicable solutions are agreed.”
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