Commenting on the publication of a study that appears in this week’s Science which says that some global fisheries are showing signs of recovery and the subsequent call by WWF Scotland for Scotland to keep up its efforts to protect fish stocks, Bertie Armstrong, chief executive of the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation, said:
“It is a welcome change to see good news – even if it is very generalised – about fish stocks. The Scottish fishing industry has demonstrated in a very practical way its commitment to recovery and sustainability and the support of WWF Scotland in working alongside us is appreciated.
“However, all our efforts can only be successful if regulation allows the industry to remain commercially viable. It should be entirely possible to achieve sustainability for both the industry and the stocks – without either one we will fail in our duty to harvest food from the sea. There will be much work required over the rest of this year to move towards this two-part aim in 2010.”
