Official assessments put Scotland’s key commercial fish species, notably haddock and cod, are at their highest level for decades.
Contrary to claims by environmental NGOs that these stocks are facing unprecedented threats, the reality is that the spawning stock biomass of haddock is the largest it has been since 1972 and cod the largest since 1998, according to SFA executive officer Simon Collins, commenting on a summary of ICES advice prepared by Dr Ian Napier of UHI Shetland.
‘We face a continuous parade of environmental NGOs popping up to tell government and consumers that fish stocks are under threat, exhausted or bordering on extinction,’ Simon Collins said.
‘As ICES itself points out, this is quite literally codswallop.’
The same report states that as well as haddock and cod, other North Sea species such as whiting and plaice are also up – and predicted to rise further.
‘The family-owned businesses that comprise our whitefish fleet here in Shetland have been fishing sustainably for generations and should never have been drowned out by doomsayers with their own anti-fishing agendas,’ he said.
‘Politicians and officials in government need to recognise the reality of the state of our stocks and resist all attempts to damage our industry by those who talk it down without a shred of evidence for their claims.’
The report by Dr Ian Napier is available here.
