Responding to the report published by Oceana and containing an attack on the UK’s fishing industry, Shetland Fishermen’s Association executive officer Daniel Lawson described the NGO as an anti-fishing group with a track record of publishing sensationalised reports, while wilfully misrepresenting the state of UK fish stocks.
‘Commercial fishing is a perfectly legitimate activity that has been successfully carried out sustainably for centuries, bringing employment and a healthy food source with a very low carbon footprint to millions of people. Island communities such as ours depend on the fishing industry for jobs and income, impossible to replace given the lack of available alternatives,’ he said.
‘Fishing is a complex activity that cannot be reduced to simplistic sloganeering dreamed up by corporate lobbyists, who rely on driving sustainability scare stories for their funding.
He commented that it’s hard for fishermen, who contribute in many ways to scientific data collection, regularly partner in sustainability projects, and rely on productive seas for their livelihoods, to be lectured by anonymously funded foundations which ‘make no practical contribution to the sustainability of fish stocks, and never show their faces in our coastal communities.’
‘ICES advice – such as that recently released for cod and mackerel – often relies too heavily on assumption and is undermined by scientific uncertainty. Single source advice, which ICES itself often admits is less that convincing, should not be relied on completely to give an accurate account of fish populations – which are also majorly impacted by factors such as global warming, natural predation, and marine developments such as offshore windfarms,’ Daniel Lawson said.
‘We have also urged governments to set lower quotas than advised for species such as haddock and whiting in recent years, because they are similarly mismatched with the reality of stock abundances found at sea.’
