In revealing story it is learnt that Scotland’s fishing grounds could be thrown open to Spanish trawlers under proposed changes to the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). This has sent a wave of shock among fishermen and the fishing industry. Leaders vowed to fight any move in the European Parliament to transfer traditional fishing rights to foreign ownership.
Expert believe that Scotland’s right of access to a lion’s share of North Sea catches is being threatened by proposed amendments to the green paper on CFP reform. Scottish Conservative MEP Struan Stevenson, a senior vice-president of Europe’s fisheries committee, warned that the proposed amendments could end up giving Spanish fishermen control of the North Sea by opening traditional grounds to takeover by wealthy foreign concerns.
Currently, access rights and catches are allocated on the basis of historical catch records under the rule of “relative stability”. Bertie Armstrong, chief executive of the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation, warned that this amendment would open the door for any nation, or commercial grouping, that wished to buy its way into the North Sea to do so.
He told that if a system of individual transferable quotas (ITQs) is introduced, there is a chance to experience the situation of Iceland where a handful of wealthy fishing companies quickly seized control of all of the available whitefish quotas, forcing many small fishing companies out of business. He opined that the impact on our fishermen would be disastrous. Our ports and harbours would also suffer, particularly if the Spanish vessels decided to land their catch back in Galicia rather than in Peterhead or Fraserburgh, which is highly likely.
