At a meeting between the Scottish fishing industry and government today, some certainty was given to fishermen as to the days at sea available for the rest of 2009. The Scottish Government will release more information to fishermen over the next few days.
Scottish Fishermen’s Federation Chief Executive Bertie Armstrong said: “The problem has been an overall lack of days awarded at the annual Fisheries Council in December for the fleet as a whole as part of a now visibly flawed framework of regulation. Government and industry have together been wrestling to make the best of a bad job.
“The overall low ‘ceiling’ of total days available is part of a new Cod Recovery Plan. The Scottish industry has been working consistently and realistically hard to meet the requirements of the plan by smarter actions – avoiding cod where possible and using more selective nets – so avoiding the worst of the effort cuts. However, despite cod’s recovery, the regulations from Brussels do not allow enough days to meet the commercial needs of significant sectors of the industry.
“The Scottish industry has demonstrated a strong commitment to sustainable fishing overall and specifically to cod recovery. This has delivered results. But under the new regulations, fishermen now have less time to catch available quota which, due to the world economic turmoil, is selling for smaller prices this year. As well as achieving the best days-at-sea result possible under the present rules, governments in Edinburgh and London must support us in pressing for change, to make the overall framework fit for purpose. The rules must be smarter, not just more severe.”
