According to a Seafish study the implementation of the EU Cod Recovery Plan was likely to prevent Scottish fishermen from taking their agreed quotas of whitefish. The UK fishing industry has also expressed real fears that proposed reductions in days at sea could prove financially unsustainable.
Commenting on this Fisheries Secretary Richard Lochhead said that the Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that the valuable fish stocks around Scotland’s coasts are harvested sustainably so as to secure the long term future of our fisheries. He also told that tightening the screws on the days at sea regime is likely both to exacerbate the industry’s current difficulties and potentially present real challenges to the conservation of cod stocks, given that the fleet may be denied time to steam to certain grounds.
In the meeting EU commissioner Joe Borg made it clear that the Commission would not re-open the Cod Recovery Plan, with the result that the number of days at sea allocated to Scotland would be cut by a further 10 percent. Lochhead said that he did seek the Commission’s agreement to work with Scotland to ensure that we can build on our pioneering Conservation Credits Scheme, whereby the fleet can buy back any loss of days through adopting certain conservation measures to protect cod.
Commissioner Borg explained he was willing to listen to new ideas from Scotland and the onus is now on Scotland, with the support of the UK Government, to present the case. It is informed that in spite of economic slide down Scottish fleets have demonstrated international leadership. They have adopted real time closures to protect juvenile cod and cod spawning areas and selective gear to allow cod to escape from prawn fishing nets.
