New SPFA chairman Richard Williamson says that the Scottish pelagic sector has a vital role to play in food security at both a national and a global level, and is keen to participate in measures to ensure better management.
‘Sustainability is a word heavily used by environmental NGOs, yet they often think it is solely their preserve and don’t seem to recognise that communities in places like Whalsay are totally dependent on fishing and where sustainability is the fundamental bedrock of everything we do,’ he said.
‘My family’s fishing heritage goes back several generations and sustainability means everything to us because our futures depend upon it.’
Richard Williamson recently became chair of the Scottish Pelagic Fishermen’s Association (SPFA), with Alexander West in the role of vice-chair, stepping in to take over from previous long-standing chair Alex Wiseman, and vice-chair David Hutchison, to provide the organisation with a new generation of leadership.
‘There are many current challenges, not least the failure to ensure an agreement on north-east Atlantic mackerel shares and quotas among coastal states – a situation which is totally outside our control as a fishing industry. However, at least some progress was made in the recent three-party agreement between the UK, Norway and the Faroes, which was a step in the right direction in reducing fishing pressure, and hopefully the other coastal states will come on board with an all-encompassing agreement,’ he said, adding that both catchers and processors are keen to regain MSC certification for north-east Atlantic mackerel.
‘It is vital to get a commonsense and pragmatic agreement on this where zonal attachment and historical track record are among the key considerations.’
Commenting on the forthcoming implementation of remote electronic monitoring (REM) on pelagic vessels, including the installation of cameras, he believes this simply amounts to more cumbersome, expensive and unnecessary bureaucracy in an already heavily regulated sector, and questions whether the Marine Directorate will even have the resources to analyse the information obtained.
‘Catch quality is really important to us,’ he said. ‘Countries like Japan, for example, demand the best quality fish, and by investing in our fleet, we can compete with countries such as Norway in the export market. It is important that all the Scottish fleet to do this together so that we can drive up quality and the global reputation of our catch.’
He commented that climate change may present more challenges in the future, and for this reason he wants to see the Scottish pelagic fleet participating in science initiatives such as data collection. He added that he has noticed fewer herring about in the summer season, but more appearing during the winter months, perhaps suggesting a seasonal shift in distribution and abundance.
‘There are still lots of gaps in our knowledge of pelagic stocks, and as an industry, we are determined to play our part in addressing such shortfalls,’ he said.
SPFA chair Richard Williamson’s family is part of the partnership behind pelagic vessel Research, which he skippers, while Alexander West is co-skipper of pelagic vessel Resolute.
