News / For cod’s sake!
SHETLAND’S white fish industry can hope for a better deal on cod at the December fisheries counsel but not for progress on the mackerel crisis, the UK fishing minister said on Tuesday.
During his first visit to Shetland, Richard Benyon voiced confidence that proposed 20 per cent cuts to the North Sea cod fishery could be overturned at the annual quota negotiations next month.
However sanctions on mackerel quota busting Iceland and Faroe were moving at “glacial speed”, he complained.
During a whistle stop tour of the islands’ fish industry, the 52 year old Tory listened to concerns about the future of Shetland’s seafood sector worth £300 million a year.
He had nothing but praise for the Shetland fishing industry, which he described as the most united he had ever come across.
“Integrating the fishing industry, the local community and science research is extremely valuable. It’s easier on an island, but it’s an absolute winner.”
And he praised fishermen for coming up with practical approaches to solving some of the “high blown political problems” the EU was trying to address, such as the virtually discard free ‘catch quota’ system and real time closures.
In turn, local fishing leaders praised the minister for being on top of his brief and having a listening ear to the issues of the day.
“I think he took on board all that the fishermen said,” Ritchie Simpson of fish agents LHD said.
News from Brussels suggests healthy increases in quota for North Sea white fish and herring, but a 20 per cent cut for cod despite looms despite significant increases in stock.
Shetland Fishermen Association chairman Leslie Tait pointed out that the North Sea cod stock will have doubled in five years to 21 million adult cod (78,300 tonnes) by next year.
Though cod forms a small part of the Shetland catch, it impacts on the ability to catch other species in a mixed fishery.
“The stock is increasing quite dramatically, but a 20 per cent cut they are advocating at the moment can only lead to discards,” Tait said.
Benyon was optimistic the UK has allies with big voting nations like France and Germany who are also suffering under the cod recovery plan that should overturn the cuts in quota and days at sea.
“I think there’s some really good news on cod stocks generally, but we are stuck with an out of date, poorly thought through management plan which has the perverse effect of seeing fishermen’s livelihoods threatened while leading to more discards,” he said.
“But we have had some very good discussions in recent weeks with the commission and I hope that we can won’t see any more reductions in effort.”
He is less confident about the future of Scotland and Shetland’s most valuable fishery – mackerel, after talks broke down yet again with Iceland and Faroe over their illegal and unilateral increase in catching over the past two years.
While Europe talks of imposing sanctions on the two island nations, no action is showing any sign of being taken.
“I feel as frustrated as others do with the glacial speed of the implementations of these sanctions,” Benyon moaned.
He said the EU operated a “bizarre and overcomplicated system”, when what was needed was to be “fast on your feet to impose sanctions that are meaningful”.
He insisted he had been working “relentlessly” to toughen up the EU response, but with little effect.
“I am pushing but I am not seeing a great deal of movement.”
He pointed out that other member states had businesses that benefitted from imports of Icelandic and Faroese mackerel, but suggested this was something of an embarrassment for those countries.
That embarrassment might extend to the UK, with the Icelandic embassy in London sending a delegation to Grimsby on Wednesday to address fish processors about their stance.
Scottish Pelagic Fishermen’s Association chief executive Ian Gatt accused Iceland of trying to create a split in the UK seafood industry.
“This is a cynical ploy where the Icelandic government intends to use spin to try and gain support for its totally indefensible over-fishing of the north-east Atlantic mackerel stock,” Gatt said.
“We are very sympathetic to the concerns of the Humber seafood processing sector and we would be happy to meet with them as it is important that they are made aware of the true background to this dispute.”
Talks between the EU and Norway commence this week on North Sea quotas.
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