Land: UK

The Scottish Government reacted angrily at tyre weekend to a decision by Iceland to increase their fishing quotas.

Falmouth Coastguard tonight coordinated the rescue of the crew of a Spanish fishing vessel REY DE OLAYA that caught fire 160 miles off the Scilly Isles.

The government is set to slash the number of coastguard stations from 18 to eight in supposed cost saving cuts placing local communities at risk. Of these only three will be operational around the clock, the other five will only operate in daylight hours and a quick response during the hours of darkness will become a challenge. All areas of the UK’s long and varied coastline will be impacted by this proposal.

Wärtsilä, the marine industry’s leading solutions provider, has been awarded the contract to supply the propulsion equipment for a new, state-of-the-art, research vessel.

There will be some cuts in catch limits as EU Fish Council is set to decide the catching opportunity for 2011.

Responsible Fishing Scheme (RFS) vessels are on the way and scallopers are happy to get scallops from it.

With most selections of whitefish at Peterhead Fish Market, Scotland’s premier fishing port, where some 9,166 boxes were sold on the first two days Monday and Tuesday December 6-7 were a little cheaper than supplies at the start of December.

Seafish has appointed Professor Michel Kaiser as the interim deputy chair of its board until March 2012.

A new round of talks will resume tomorrow (9 December) in Copenhagen to try and reach agreement with the Faroes on mackerel catching for 2011.