Responding today (16 January) to the annual ‘report card’ produced at the meeting in Edinburgh of the Marine Climate Change Impacts Partnership, Scottish Fishermen’s Federation chief executive Bertie Armstrong said he welcomed the forum as a means for providing clear information on the current status of climate change.
The United Kingdom Marine Climate Change Impacts Partnership (MCCIP) brings together scientists, government, its agencies and NGOs to provide co-ordinated advice on climate change impacts around our coast and in our seas.
The report said 2006 was the second-warmest year in UK coastal waters since records began in 1870; seven of the 10 warmest years have occurred in the last decade.
Mr Armstrong said: “From the fishing industry perspective we welcome the fact that climate change is being taken seriously by Government and other bodies.
“We feel it is vitally important that the impacts of climate change are fully recognised when quotas and other fisheries management measures are discussed.
“There is no point in introducing unnecessary constraints on the fleet when the underlying cause of a reduction in any particular stock is climate change rather than from other impacts.
“We also don’t want to miss any opportunities that climate change may bring in the form of new species for the Scottish fleet to catch, for example red mullet and John Dory.”
