Scallop fishermen raise concerns about impact on fishery of planned oil and gas exploration and windfarm development.

And they claim ’flawed’ surveys suggesting declining stocks have brought the scallop fleet to the brink – and are paving the way for the seismic surveys and gas rigs. Mr Ironside said: ’Government has drastically reduced quotas for queenies to protect “diminishing stocks” but now they’re planning to do seismic surveys for gas and oil where the queenies were. ’Why protect them and then wipe them out building gas rigs on them?’ Total allowable catch for queen scallops was cut by 40% to just 476 tonnes at the beginning of the season in July. >click to read< 10:05

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