The end of 2023 won’t come soon enough for most of the Scottish demersal fleet, according to SWFPA chairman David Milne as he looked forward to the coming year – and back over 2023.
‘With small increases in several catching opportunities the year showed so much promise, yet factors such as the continuing high cost of fuel, the low price received for small fish, high interest rates and the poor showing of prawns on the grounds meant the prosperous year many hoped for just hasn’t materialised,’ he said, commenting that the small increases in the share of the TACs post Brexit continues to deliver relatively little additional opportunities into the demersal sector and remains an area of immense disappointment for SWFPA members.
‘However, there are other areas of the catching sector where immense windfalls have occurred and I believe it is now incumbent on a responsible government to ensure these windfalls are used to deliver equity and balance elsewhere,’ he said.
SWFPA has welcomed thenew approach to what is now classed as Northern Cod.
‘In line with the Northern Fishing Alliance, we believe there was no clear rational to step back from agreeing a TAC aligned to the Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) approach,’ David Milne said.
‘It is our clear hope that information on catches from the southern sub stock are compiled and assessed in the year ahead, and any uncertainty around northerly mixing and level of catches resolved.’
He commented that poor auction prices for small fish remains a clear concern for the Association’s members, stating that the largest quota for the Scottish demersal fleet is haddock – and the price at auction is very often less than what it costs to catch them.
‘It very much becomes an issue of market failure as opposed to the impact of oversupply. The reasons behind the situation would seem to be a shortage of processing labour just as it is for other food producing sectors. The catching sector is no different as we now have a high reliance on non-UK crew,’ he said.
‘The short-term solution may lie in machine filleting and selling the product to the frozen block market, although it’s unlikely that such initiatives will deliver the good prices previously enjoyed by the fishermen. However, any uplift in price is welcome. The solution to the small haddock issue would be helped, although not entirely solved, by greater selectivity. It makes clear sense, for several reasons, to leave fish in the sea longer before harvest, which puts a clear emphasis on being more selective throughout the fishing operation.’
According to David Milne, there are real opportunities to take a new and refreshing approach to fisheries are managed, which includes technical innovation to improve selectivity.
‘As we look forward to 2024 its clear that we have more fish to catch than we had in the year we are leaving behind, which is always a good thing. But as we have witnessed, having opportunities to catch doesn’t always translate into economic prosperity,’ he said.
‘All the important tangential issues such as those mentioned earlier need to align to make it a year to remember for the right reasons.’
