Amongst the key elements is the proposal for no fishing to take place on the West coast for cod. Proposals for other important west coast fisheries include a 25% cut for anglerfish (monkfish), 15% reduction for megrim and 11% for hake. It is proposed that west coast haddock be increased by 25% and prawns (nephrops) by a very small margin. In the North Sea, the important prawn fishery is in line for an 11% cut in quota.
The proposals sets levels of TAC and fishing effort for fish stocks managed by the EU exclusively, and not for stocks managed with third countries (such as Norway) including North Sea haddock and cod, which will be set at a later date.
Bertie Armstrong, chief executive of the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation said: “We share with the European Commission the aims of sustainable food production from the sea. Unfortunately, this first set of proposals represents yet another huge missed opportunity by the European Commission. We had hoped that with the Scottish fleet’s record of discard reduction and stock conservation that a more intelligent approach to fisheries management would have been adopted by the EC this year. Unfortunately, we have another dose of the same old medicine.
“Many of the cuts have been imposed as an automatic result of the failure of other EU member states to supply adequate catch data. This means that many of the cuts are not due to poor stock levels, but rather a blunt instrument by the EC to improve the flow of catch data. It is totally unfair that the Scottish industry, which has been at the forefront of providing such data, should be penalised for the inaction of other EU member states.
“We are particularly disappointed that the increase in West of Scotland haddock, whilst welcome as far as it goes, does not come close to recognising the robust health of this important stock and will inevitably lead to discarding, a practice the Scottish fleet finds abhorrent. Similarly, whilst the Scottish fleet shares the EC’s aim for the recovery of the cod stock, the zero catch proposed for West coast cod is counter-productive in terms of discards and will do more harm than good. There are better, much more intelligent ways to meet the aims of sustainable fishing and we will be fighting to put those in place.”
