Tag Archives: Scotland
New Peterhead festival to champion north-east seafood
Europe’s top white-fish port will provide the backdrop for a new north-east food and drink festival this autumn. SeaFest Peterhead has been organised to champion the area’s valuable seafood sector. Organisers are already hailing the new addition to the Blue Toon’s social calendar as a “must see”. It is due to take place at the harbour on Saturday September 9 from 11am to 4pm. Billed as a “fin-tastic” extravaganza to “shell-ebrate” the bounty of the sea, it will showcase the rich fishing heritage of Peterhead and the wider north-east region. >click to read< 09:15
Local seafood restaurant ‘heartbroken’ after hooded figure caught destroying vital boat
A popular local seafood restaurant has been left heartbroken after their shellfish supplier’s boat was destroyed. On Friday, July 28, a hooded figure was caught on CCTV damaging a boat at Methil Dockyears that supplies lobster and shellfish to North Queensferry’s Wee Restaurant. The popular seafood eatery has said they are ‘beyond rage and despair’ after they heard the news that the boat, Tina Louise, was damaged and sunk at around 7am. The owners of the Tina Louise said: “In the early hours of Friday morning, this man climbed over the security fence at the Methil Boat Club, wearing a mask and with a battery-powered drill in hand. >click to read< 08:53
Ross Greer’s boasts about environmental scheme left in tatters by brutal rebuke from fishermen group
Ross Greer’s boasts about the “astounding success” of an environmental project seen as a precursor to the hated highly-protected marine areas have been left in tatters following a brutal rebuke from a fishermen group. The Scottish Greens MSP paid lavish tribute to a No Take Z one at Lamlash Bay. Mr Greer praised the project at First Minister Questions in May but his comments have been called into question by the Shetland Fishermen’s Association. “Brown crab and juvenile lobster stock levels have fallen in Lamlash Bay, and the increased abundance of scallops has actually been smaller inside the protected zone than outside it. The anti-fishing lobby have long made much of the supposed benefits of Lamlash Bay, but conveniently fail to mention the whole truth – and instead only publicise the cherry-picked information that suits their political agenda.” >click to read< 20:24
Government boost for Scottish fisheries
A financial injection of £18.7 million is going into ten projects across Scotland through the Infrastructure Scheme, aiming to improve ports, harbours, processing and aquaculture facilities. A further £2.1 million is being routed to four Scottish projects through the Fisheries Industry Science Partnerships (FISP) scheme to provide vital research that will inform fisheries management. These projects are supported by in excess of £74 million in match funding from alternative private or public contributions. Funding is also available for the catching sector across the UK to replace or modernise engines to reduce emissions, improve reliability and enable new technologies to be tested. >click to read< 12:38
Fraserburgh’s Latest Prawn Catcher
Built by Parkol Marine Engineering, this new 25 metre LOA by 8 metre breadth Daystar is a metre longer than the trawler it replaces – which is now fishing for new owners and is still working from Fraserburgh. The Daystar name goes back to the first to carry the name, an 18.50 metre trawler built at Macduff for Stephen West and his partners. Like it predecessor, the new trawler is an SC MacAllister design, and has a striking colour scheme and some very sleek lines, thanks to the raised whaleback section and raised bulwarks along each side with the handrails only about 600mm high on top of this. This contributes to crew safety when working on top of the shelterdeck. Photos,>click to read< 17:46
Strong fish landings at Peterhead Port
Figures compiled by Peterhead Port Authority show that 89,256 tonnes of fish with a gross value of almost £96 million came over the quaysides prior to the end of May. This compares with 66,928 tonnes worth just over £82 million to May 2022. Whitefish tonnage reached 20,978 (18,270 in 2022) worth £41,964,120 (£39,791,454 in 2022), reflecting some quota increases for key species. Pelagic landings weighed in at 65,890 tonnes (46,332 in 2022) with a gross value of £47,226,145 (£36,953,131 in 2022). And shellfish landings topped the scales at 2,388 tonnes, marginally up on 2022’s figures (2,326 tonnes) but with better prices yielding £6,787,060 compared with £5,611,996. >click to read< 08:58
Recommendation made to MCA as man overboard investigation concludes
An investigation into the fatal man overboard incident on a Shetland trawler in 2021 has resulted in a recommendation being made to the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) to amend regulations around fishing boats having the means to recover an unconscious person from the water. No recommendations have been made to the owners of the Copious, 60 North Fishing (Shetland) Ltd, in light of the actions they have taken. Since the fatal accident the owners have brought in a replacement Copious, bought man overboard recovery equipment and upgraded lifejackets. Edison Lacaste, 45, died in the early hours of 18 February 2021 when he fell overboard from the Copious LK985 while the vessel was trawling 30 miles southeast of Sumburgh. >click to read< 17:19
Breaking news: Scottish Government backs down over HPMAs
Mairi McAllan, Scotland’s Net Zero Secretary, announced today that both the timetable – with implementation due to take place by 2026 – and scope, covering 10% of Scotland’s coastal waters, were no longer government policy. The Scottish Government had published a consultation document last December, setting out plans for Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAs) in which virtually no form of commercial activity – including all forms of fishing, aquaculture or offshore renewable energy installations – would be permitted. The proposals drew strong criticism from coastal communities, the fishing industry and the fish farming sector, and even from some Scottish National Party (SNP) members of the Scottish Parliament, including former Fisheries Minister Fergus Ewing. >click to read< 09:55
Crew on ill-fated trawler Njord which sank after capsizing ‘weren’t wearing lifejackets’
Seven fishermen on board the Njord, skippered by Danny Normandale from Scarborough, were rescued uninjured. However, an eighth crewmember “succumbed to the effects of immersion in cold water” and drowned, the summary issued by the Marine Accident Investigation Board said. A rescue operation was launched after the alarm was raised on March 6 2022. The interim report said the stern trawler, which was 150 miles north-east of Peterhead, Scotland, capsized on calm seas, while processing a large haul of fish. >click to read< 08:55
Hook, Line, and Sinker: How Brexit betrayed the UK fishing industry
Retired fisherman Charlie Waddy, former first mate of the Kirkella, knows what’s at stake on the ocean. His close friend died while working on deck beside him; his father was lost at sea returning from Iceland and Norway when Waddy, the youngest of seven children, was just three years old. But for the desperate hand of a nearby crewmate, Waddy himself nearly went overboard, his chances of survival slim in the frigid and pulsating waters below. Believing evocative memories of trawlers departing for distant seas might be reclaimed, Waddy voted for Brexit. He said he now felt betrayed by politicians who extoled the benefits of leaving the EU but then failed to deliver. “I wish I never,” he sighed. “They told us everything that we wanted to hear.” Photos, > click to read< 08:30
Lone fisherman who fell overboard and drowned was not wearing life jacket
Skipper John Wilson, 64, was alone on the Harriet J off the coast of the Scottish Borders when he fell into the water on the morning of August 28, 2021. A Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) report found he had probably become entangled in a chain weight in his fishing gear and was pulled through the open door for shooting fishing gear into the sea. The unmanned vessel motored away and shortly afterwards it passed close to another fishing boat, of which one of Mr Wilson’s relatives was the skipper. >click to read< 0855
Scots fishermen who backed Brexit betrayed after Tories ‘promised a new dawn’
Fuming Scots fishermen who once backed Brexit have said they were promised a “new dawn” before being “sold down the river”. Speaking at Peterhead Harbour, skipper Peter Bruce said the reality of leaving Europe had shattered his trust in Brexiteer politicians. He said: “It’s been a big disappointment, to be quite honest. The politicians came up from London, Boris Johnson came up a couple of times, the highest levels of government came up to Peterhead Harbour, promising this new dawn for the fishing industry. And that new dawn hasn’t come.” >click to read< 08:32
SNP and Greens face fight on HPMAs as salmon farmers and fishers join forces in ‘Seafood Coalition’
Scotland’s nationalist government is facing a huge fight on its proposal for Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAs), amid claims they are being used to appease the Scottish Green Party. The country’s salmon farmers and fishers have joined forces to launch a petition against the move at Holyrood. The ‘Seafood Coalition’ wants to see the plans, which could limit activities such as fishing and aquaculture in 10 per cent of Scottish waters, scrapped. The SNP and Greens claim the zones will “provide high levels of protection” for the marine environment. The coalition includes Salmon Scotland, the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation, Seafood Scotland, Scottish Association of Fish Producers’ Organisations, Community Fisheries Inshore Alliance and Scottish Seafood Association. >click to read< 10:28
New Twin-Rigger’s Efficiency and Comfort
Looking for a modern trawler with more comfort for the crew, as well as better steaming speed and fuel efficiency when towing, while staying largely with the successful and familiar layout of their previous vessel, Derek Watt and his son Philip went back to Macduff for their new Excel BF-100. Designed to operate from Fraserburgh, fishing primarily for nephrops in the North Sea, the new F/V Excel replaces vessel of the same name that Macduff delivered to the family in 2010 and which has served them well since. Staying with the general internal layout and working arrangement that has shown itself to work well over the years was a key factor in the design, developed by the owners with the yard and Macduff Ship Design, which would make the transition to the new vessel a painless process. Photos, >click to read< 13:23
Seafood firm fined over Thurso fisherman’s death
Mark Elder, 26, from Thurso, was working on the creel boat North Star off Cape Wrath on 5 February 2018. He was helping to deploy creels when he became entangled in a coil of rope and was dragged overboard and into the sea. Thurso-based Scrabster Seafoods Ltd was fined after pleading guilty to health and safety breaches. On Wednesday, Tain Sheriff Court heard Mr Elder’s crew-mates tried to stop him from going into the water. It took about 10 minutes for him to be brought back on board. Efforts to resuscitate Mr Elder continued for more than an hour but were unsuccessful. >click to read< 09:59
Scottish fishermen say marine protection plans will wreck coastal communities
“It’s about justice,” says Angus MacPhail, a creel fisher off Barra, in the Outer Hebrides, about the marine protection plans that he believes will devastate island cultures like his own. The outcry over these highly protected marine areas (HPMAs) – a key part of the Bute House agreement that brought the Scottish Greens into government with the SNP in 2021 – has been heartfelt, with accusations that the policy is poorly evidenced, weakly consulted and dismissive of local experience. He insists the historic comparison to the Highland clearances is “no exaggeration” – he says closing these inshore fishing grounds won’t just destroy the fleet but the already fragile island infrastructure that relies on it, from net makers to schools bolstered by fishers’ offspring. >click to read< 09:12
SNP must dump the Greens and ditch HPMAs
In England, marine conservationists have persuaded the Westminster Government to designate around 0.53% of coastal waters as HPMAs in a series of pilot projects. But in Scotland, the area is more than 20 times greater, threatening livelihoods and entire fishing communities. Kate Forbes, the former SNP contender for the job of First Minister, says that “if the proposals go ahead as planned, the rarest species in our coastal areas and islands will soon be people.” Scotland’s fishing communities are not alone in their opposition to new marine conservation measures. In Europe, fishers from many countries are staging a series of protests against European Commission proposals aimed at “protecting and restoring marine ecosystems for sustainable and resilient fisheries”. >click to read< 08:40
SNP MP urges locals to oppose marine protection plans
The proposals to restrict fishing and other human activities in some coastal areas are designed to protect wildlife and the environment. But fishing industry representatives, along with people in many communities in the Highlands and Islands, have raised concerns – as have several of the SNP’s own MSPs. Mr. O’Hara, an outspoken critic of his party’s plan to introduce HPMAs on the west coast, has urged his constituents to make their opinions known to the Scottish government by contacting his office directly to have their views collated and shared with Holyrood ministers. >click to read< 08:30
HMPAs: Ross Greer put in his place by furious fishermen over ‘contemptuous’ marine ban tweet
Ross Greer made a “contemptuous comment” about the impact of fishing bans on coastal areas amid the ongoing backlash against the proposed Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAs). “The fisherman in the North Sea of the 1830s could catch one ton of halibut a day. Now the annual halibut take of the North Sea is two tons.” Fifth generation fisherman Kenneth MacNab said: “You know absolutely nothing about fishing or stocks but your welcome to come out anytime you wish just to let you see what actual work is and what fishermen have to do to support their communities to put it into perspective HPMAs will be 10 times worse than Brexit ever was.” >click to read< 07:49
South Shields lifeboat, the Bedford, restored by maritime trust
Constructed in 1886, The Bedford was the last lifeboat to be built by the Tyne Lifeboat Institution – now the Tyne Lifeboat Society. She was launched on 55 occasions between 1887 and 1937 and is of great historical significance to the maritime heritage of South Shields. The Bedford was built in 1886 by Lancelot Lambert at the Lawe Building Yard. It was named by a Miss Bedford, who bequeathed £1,000 – about £468,900 in today’s money- to the Lifeboat Society Trustees for a lifeboat to be named in memory of her brother, Benjamin, who was an engineer with the Tyne Improvement Commission. Photos, >click to read< 17:45
Minister must stop and rethink on HPMAs, says fisheries leader
In remarks at the opening of the Scottish Skipper Expo at the P&J Live in Aberdeen, the sector’s biggest annual showcase, Elspeth Macdonald, chief executive of the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation, said ministers had failed to make the case for Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAs). She told Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs Mairi Gougeon, who attended the event: “I’m sorry to say that our recent experience in engaging with the government on HPMAs has been far from meaningful. We all need to work to protect nature and we all need to act to help tackle climate change. But this is not the way to do it. I absolutely know I am not alone in calling for the government to stop and rethink these proposals, which are causing great concern and anxiety all around Scotland’s coast. >click to read< 11:16
HPMAs: Tiree’s economy could sink unless plans are scrapped
In Tiree, there are good years and bad years. Years when crab and lobster are plentiful, years when they are not. Small boats work using fixed-line, static gear. Tiree fishermen place their creels with the precision afforded by sonar technology. There is no bycatch. Anything which will not be landed is thrown back alive. Many are voluntarily notching lobsters to ensure future stocks. Now, with the government’s proposals for statutory HPMAs, we are being told that our seas must be even more highly protected – from the people who live and work here. From us. >click to read< 10:01
Enterprise III Joins the Fraserburgh Fleet
Enterprise III has been delivered to James Lovie and his partners, and is a Vestværftet design, outfitted and completed at the yard in Hvide Sande on a hull fabricated in Poland. The new trawler headed for Fraserburgh to start its fishing career and to make its first landings. Accommodation on board is for up to eleven and is fitted out to an exceptionally high standard. The deck is laid out with three trawl winches controlled by a Scantrol autotrawl, three pairs of sweepline winches at the head of the long trawl desk with drums large enough to spool ground gear, three net drums over the trawl lanes, pairs of bagging, outhaul and codend winches, and a forward mooring winch. Photos, >click to read< 17:37 and partners
Banff and Buchan MP criticises Banffshire and Buchan Coast MSP for ‘disowning fishing industry’
Banff and Buchan MP David Duguid has criticised Karen Adam for “disowning the fishing industry” and putting “political games ahead of constituents” after she voted against reconsidering proposals on Highly Protected Marine Areas despite widespread concern from the sector. Mr Duguid said the SNP Banffshire and Buchan Coast MSP was “happy to see the fishing sector sink” as she opted against changing “catastrophic” plans for a partial squeeze in Scottish waters. Just three SNP MSPs, Kate Forbes, Fergus Ewing and Alasdair Allan, did not vote with the rest of their party while three others Annabelle Ewing, Christine Grahame and Ash Regan abstained. >click to read< 12:45
Fishing industry reels over government’s HPMA plans
A statement on behalf of the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation, Seafood Scotland, Salmon Scotland, Scottish Association of Fish Producers Organisation and Community Fisheries Inshore Alliance was released after politicians debated the issue in Holyrood on Tuesday. The motion, put forward by Beatrice Wishart MSP, was highly emotive with politicians and industry leaders calling the government’s proposal baseless. The statement said: “We call on the Government to listen to those whose livelihoods depend on putting Scottish seafood on people’s plates; those who would be most impacted. >click to read< 11:23
Fisherman prepares to take to the stage with HPMA protest song
Vatersay fisherman Donald Francis MacNeil talks to Jacqueline Wake Young about The Clearances Again, the protest song he co-wrote with Celtic band Skipinnish, as they prepare to perform it live at Aberdeen Music Hall concert on May 12. DF, as he is known to family and friends, followed in his father’s footsteps and became a fisherman as soon as he left school. “Many young men did the same. You could leave school on Friday and start on a fishing boat on Monday. It was very much a natural option and I enjoyed it.” Now the 64-year-old is about to face another challenge – singing on stage with Skipinnish after their protest song reached number five in the iTunes downloads chart. >click to read< 11:50
SNP minister says fishing ban ‘will not be imposed’ on communities
Scotland’s Net Zero Secretary has defended her government’s controversial plans to expand protected marine areas – insisting that no sites have been identified and proposals will not be “imposed” on coastal communities. Fishing bosses have reacted angrily to plans by the Scottish Government to consider introducing highly protected marine areas (HMPAs). Under the plans, designated areas would be under rules to “strictly protect and leave undisturbed, all natural processes of the marine ecosystem”, including “the seabed, water column habitats and everything that lives in the protected area”. >click to read< 09:12
UK response to visa rule concerns branded an ‘insult’ to Scottish fishermen
New rules came into force last week affecting the visas most commonly used by non-UK fishermen. The industry heavily criticised the move, saying it could lead to businesses in the Highlands and islands closing down. Now Alistair Carmichael, MP for Orkney and Shetland, has raised these concerns directly with the Home Office and says the UK Government’s decision is “economically illiterate, politically inept and morally indefensible”. However, new rules came into force last week banning anyone on transit visas from carrying out work on fishing boats, and requiring them to get a skilled workers visa instead. >click to read< 12:25
Former SNP MSP quits party over plan to ban fishing that could ‘devastate’ coastal communities
Angus MacDonald, who served at Holyrood for a decade before stepping down in 2021, is the latest figure to criticise the introduction of highly protected marine areas (HPMAs). The Scottish Government has committed to designating at least 10 per cent of the country’s coastline as highly protected in an effort to boost ecosystems. Commercial and recreational fishing would be banned in the zones as well as the harvesting of seaweed. MacDonald, who lives on the isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, believes the law would be devastating to the economy of coastal communities. >click to read< 10:16
Ross Greer accused of ‘outrageous slur’ with ‘disgraceful’ comment about fishermen over marine area controversy
A Greens backbencher has been accused of a “outrageous slur” when he claimed that those who stand against the Scottish Governments fishing ban “are not interested in securing the future of families who have relied on fishing for employment for generations.” West of Scotland MSP Ross Greer said his accusations applied to “some” in the industry who he feels are to blame for the widespread backlash to plans for Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAs). Scottish Conservative shadow rural affairs secretary Rachael Hamilton MSP, said: “These disgraceful remarks from Ross Greer once again highlight how out-of-touch the Greens are with the needs of our fishermen and coastal communities. >click to read< 13:57
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