News / Scallopers hit back
SCOTTISH fishing leaders are already hitting out at celebrity chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall even before his new programme on the industry is aired on Channel 4 on Thursday night.
Ploughing the Sea Floor targets scallop dredging as part of the Hugh’s Fish Fight campaign.
The Scottish Fishermen’s Federation said the three programme series offers a totally imbalanced and distorted view of the scallop fishing sector.
SFF chief executive Bertie Armstrong said: “Scallop fishermen depend upon abundant scallop stocks and a healthy marine environment and are committed to the protection of marine biodiversity.
“Scalloping only utilises a very small part of the seabed with vessels consistently fishing the same areas decade after decade. To imply that the scallop sector causes wide scale damage is both disingenuous and disproportionate.
“The suggestion by some celebrity chefs that we should eat only hand-dived scallops is wrong and totally impracticable as only 2% of scallops are harvested by divers, which would deny the vast majority of consumers the opportunity to enjoy this superb and sustainably caught seafood, leaving the availability of scallops to only a rich elite.
“The scallop sector is also very important to our economically fragile coastal communities, employing 600 fishing sector jobs and 750 processor jobs all around the coast.”
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