This follows dissatisfaction with Government action on monitoring and regulating shipping in the channel, which both authorities claim has not gone far enough. The group is also considering how to cover the concerns of councillors in Caithness, who fear that the Pentland Firth could also be the victim of an environmental disaster caused by dangerous cargoes.

Group member councillor Donald Manford, who chairs Comhairle nan Eilean Siar’s transportation committee, said that shipping had to be compelled to report in to coastguards, rather than be left with the voluntary reporting system currently in operation. Emergency towing vessels were established in a number of locations around the British coast following the ‘Braer’ sinking off Shetland in 1993. Although they are there to help tow vessels in distress, they still face problems with ship masters who refuse to be taken in tow for insurance and salvage reasons, and who also refuse to give details of cargo and voyage.

Councillor Manford said: “We have achieved a fair amount, but we have still to get the Government to carry out a hydrographic survey west of the Hebrides to designate a deep water route, which will keep dangerous shipping well clear of the Minch. Ship owners say that this has not been properly charted and that they need accurate charts of reefs, sandbanks and water depths. We also have to persuade shipping that they must give us details of where they are sailing to and from and what they are carrying. A lot of them do that voluntarily, but a lot refuse. One way of doing that would be to give the ETV operated by the Maritime Coastguard Agency powers to approach these ships and demand these details from them.”

The two councils have also been pressing the Government to identify safe havens where vessels in distress could be taken to help contain any potential pollution, which the ships were being assessed and possibly repaired. Councillor Manford commented: “There is still a lot of work to be done to identify the safe havens. These communities must know what is happening, and have firm agreements on any compensation payments. If they are to suffer environmental damage to prevent wider damage, the terms of compensation must be set out clearly. So far the Government has been reluctant to do that.”

The Government has also refused to look at removing the right of innocent passage through the Minch, for fear of retaliatory action by other countries removing similar rights in their seaways. The Group has also considered a request from Councillor David Bremner to include the Pentland Firth, and representation from Orkney Islands Council in their deliberations. The Group has agreed to look at how this could be extended, since much of the same shipping passes through the two channels.

Councillor Michael Foxley, who has been pursuing tighter restrictions on Minch shipping for nearly 25 years, said that the voluntary codes were simply being flouted. “We have the tugs, improved charts and navigation aids. There is improved routing and reporting, but this must be mandatory. 0We want to have a proper vessel traffic service like they have in Norway which will clearly monitor all shipping and that this can be accessed by computer by anyone in the Highlands and Islands involved in monitoring shipping. We were promised a designated deep water route to the west two years ago and it hasn’t happened. We need to know why the surveys promised weren’t carried out. We want that implemented now,” he said.

Councillor Foxley added: “We’ve agreed not to pursue making the Minch a pilotage area at the moment, no to ask for the right of innocent passage to be removed. But we want everything else so that we can plot all the hazardous cargoes going through the Minch on any laptop operated by any emergency services officer in the North. We also need urgent identification of safe havens and a compensation package.”

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.

Printer friendly version

Email this article to a friend