Scottish fishing plan leads the way

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2008-11-20

Scotland is leading the way for sustainable fishing as EU fisheries talks plan to roll out Scotland's innovative approach to sustaining fishing grounds.

Richard Lochhead, SNP Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs today welcomed the EU’s plans to roll out Scotland’s  innovative approach to sustaining fishing grounds, as part of the new Cod Recovery Plan agreed in Brussels.

Speaking from Brussels where he has been attending fisheries negotiations Richard Lochhead commented;

“This plan was thrashed out in talks over the past 24 hours and builds on the approach set out in the Conservation Credits Scheme, pioneered by the Scottish sector in 2008.”

"The trailblazing approach to sustainable fisheries management adopted by Scotland's fishermen has been recognised and rewarded  It is clearly much better to land good marketable fish than throw it dead overboard.”

“I am determined to ensure that we will continue to lead by example, and that we apply the same the trailblazing and responsible approach we have adopted on the Cod Recovery Plan to the West of Scotland proposals.”

Responding to the agreement, SNP MEP Ian Hudghton said: "It is a credit to Scotland's Fisheries Minister Richard Lochhead and his team that Europe has now decided to follow Scotland's lead. Our innovative approach linking time at sea to conservation measures provides the most realistic opportunity of sustaining viable fishing communities and protecting cod stocks.

"Times remain very tough for Scotland's cod fishermen, but no one has a greater interest in promoting a successful conservation industry than fishermen themselves who have responded very positively to the Scottish government's approach.

"We now look forward to the forthcoming talks with Norway and hopefully today's agreement should pave the way for an increase in quota there.

"We have challenging targets in terms of reducing the amount of cod mortality but I'm convinced that the Scottish government's progressive approach is the best way forward for our fishing industry."

 The agreement allows responsibility for much day-to-day fisheries management to be handed back to member states, and it rewards Scotland for the innovative approaches our industry has adopted as well as for past sacrifices. Although the new target for reducing cod mortality is going to be extremely challenging, we have a head start thanks to the Scots fleet leading Europe when it comes to fisheries conservation, a fact that is now widely acknowledged. This was the first of three stages of the annual negotiations and our attention must now turn to the EU-Norway talks next week.

 

The cod recovery plan which has been agreed today adopts the same approach to effort allocation as the Scottish Conservation Credits Scheme. In essence, both schemes link the number of days which certain vessels can spend at sea to the toughness of the conservation measures which their fleet signs up to. The Total Allowable Catch for North Sea cod was not decided at November Council as it must be agreed separately with Norway. That agreement will be reached by the end of next week in the course of negotiations with Norway. The European Commission has published proposals with respect to the West of Scotland whitefish fishery which would have a substantial detrimental impact on the West Coast nephrops fleet (worth over £30 million to the west coast rural and remote economy). The Cod Recovery Plan did not address those proposals which will instead be discussed at the December Fisheries Council.