Tag Archives: Scottish government
Scottish officials ordered to withdraw from fishing talks with Russia
The Scottish Government has said it will not take part in any fisheries negotiations with the Russian Federation in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine. Environment Secretary Mairi Gougeon has instructed Scottish Government officials to withdraw from any such negotiations until further notice. She confirmed the move as she called for talks over fish stocks involving both the UK and Russia to be postponed. >click to read< 11:22
Clyde fishing ban: ‘No scientific evidence of creel fishing impact on cod spawning’
A Scottish university professor says science around the effect of creel fishing on cod spawning is ‘completely lacking’ as trawlermen continue to be impacted by a ban. These observations come after a targeted cod ban prohibiting all fishing activity where cod can spawn in the Firth of Clyde came into place on February 14. Paul McAllister, a creel boat skipper based at Campbeltown Harbour in Kintyre, said he continues to feel “purposefully ignored” by the Scottish Government and “weighed down” after he closed his business due to the ban. >click to read< 08:37
‘Never-ending battle’ for creel fisherman as Jenni Minto MSP seeks support after ban
A creel fisherman based at the Clyde continues to feel ignored and neglected as an MSP has asked the Scottish Government to consider “all options” to support families affected by a ban. Jenni Minto, SNP MSP for Argyll and Bute, has written to the Scottish Government to ask for support to be considered for fishermen impacted by a closure in the Clyde. Despite the MSP’s action, creel fisherman Paul McAllister said he continues to feel “purposefully ignored” by the Scottish Government and “weighed down”. Last week, the Scottish Government said the ban would have “short-term costs” to protect the cod population. >click to read< 08:27
Fishermen feeling the squeeze as Scotland’s seas become overcrowded
Fishers are being crowded out of their traditional grounds by a combination of renewable energy developments and “excessive” conservation measures, they said. These pressures may lead to vast areas of Scottish waters being closed off or subjected to severe restrictions, they warned. “Coastal communities currently reap the benefits of the seafood brought back by our sustainable, modern, family-owned fishing fleet. “Profits from offshore windfarms will disappear into the budgets of private, wealthy, multinational energy firms.” >click to read< 10:05
History repeating itself?
The Scottish Government have recently published a report with the headline Just Transition: A Fairer, Greener Scotland. A win-win situation one might think, profits for the government and a greener future to appease their Green Party colleagues in government. However, where there are winners; someone usually has to lose, so what is to be lost in this transaction and for whom? The loss here will be to every fishing community on the periphery of Scotland, with residents that harvest the bounty that nature annually provides from the seabed around our shores. That ability to harvest the seabed is now being stolen from the fishing communities, as it is being sold off to the highest bidders; by the new Crown Estate landowners, our own Scottish Government in Edinburgh. >click to read< By William Polson 09:55 – Scotland’s offshore wind sector gets $951 million boost as parts of seabed leased out – The Scottish offshore wind sector received a boost this week after a program to lease areas of Scotland’s seabed for wind farm developments raised just under £700 million (around $952 million). >click to read< 12:29
Fishermen slam ‘soul-destroying’ decision to end Clyde fishing exemption
Fishermen have slammed the Scottish Government’s ‘soul-destroying’ decision to introduce new cod stock protection measures in the Firth of Clyde. The government is ending an exemption letting creel and scallop dredgers and langoustine trawlers use the area during the approaching spawn season. For more than two decades, measures were in place to protect spawning cod in the Firth of Clyde, with the area being closed off for 11 weeks between 14 February and 30 April. The group said that the “total loss of income” would affect many small family boats for months, which is a burden to the fishing communities following Brexit and the pandemic. >click to read< 09:11
Pushing the Limit: Councillor floats idea of devolving some fisheries control to Shetland
Duncan Anderson, who represents the North Isles, pointed to the Scottish Islands Act which gives scope for local authorities to request more powers or functions. The Scottish Government has the responsibility for managing inshore fishing out to the 12 mile limit. A precedent was set more than 20 years ago when the management of the local commercial shellfish fishery out to the six mile limit was devolved to the Shetland Shellfish Management Organization. Anderson, who is from the fishing community of Whalsay, said he “firmly believes that Shetland should control the fisheries in what would be Shetland’s EEZ, like our Faroese neighbours”. >click to read< 15:47
The grants have been an absolute lifeline – Resilience Fund Supports the Fleet
More than 850 fishing vessels affected by Coronavirus and Brexit have received resilience funding from the Scottish Government this year. ‘I’m hugely grateful for the Scottish Government’s speedy response to our dire situation, firstly in March 2020 when there was the COVID-19 ‘market collapse’ and then in February in when the chaos caused by Brexit export restrictions hit us like a brick,’ said Kenneth Lamond, owner and skipper of the F/V Dunan Star which trawls for prawns around Skye, Small Isles and the Minches. ‘The speed with which the grant package got to boats saved many jobs and livelihoods up here – we couldn’t have got to sea without this aid and I would have had to let my crew go. The timely assistance is directly responsible for three families’ continued livelihoods and our tiny fishing community around Elgol would have been really struggling without this aid.’ >click to read< 13:58
Forgotten industries – Auctioning off enormous areas of precious fishing grounds to offshore wind farm developers
At a time when Scottish fishing communities are still trying to come to terms with the regulations they face after the Westminster Government’s adoption of a Brexit deal,,, The Scottish Government appear to be intent on heaping more pressure on the Scottish fishing communities, as they are presently auctioning off enormous areas of precious fishing grounds to wind farm developers and are creating massive Marine Protected Areas, that prohibits fishing activities. This will concentrate the fishing effort in other areas, putting more pressure on the available fish stocks in what fishing grounds are left. By William Polson, Whalsay, Shetland. >click to read< 18:12
Scottish ministers are contesting a judge’s demand to reconsider a no-trawl scheme
Lady Poole made the ruling after ministers said that the revisiting the proposed pilot no-trawl scheme “would serve no practical purpose”. She took action after, in a landmark legal judgement, the Scottish Creel Fishermen’s Federation (SCFF) won a court challenge over the “right to trawl” in Scotland’s inshore waters which was expected to have a marked bearing in fishing rights across the country.,, But the Scottish Government has decided to appeal her ruling. >click to read< 08:37
Distraught UK fishermen face wipe out over coronavirus and EU
The British fishing industry could be “wiped out” because of the coronavirus outbreak keeping fishermen from selling their products to the wider public. The British and Scottish Governments have both issued guidance and rolled out new policies in a bid to help the fishing industry survive the crisis but fishermen have warned their policies may not be enough. Scottish trawler Alistair Sinclair told the Today programme: “We don’t really know what is ahead of us. “There’s no light at the end of the tunnel. We may get to the point where boats are of little value. “Everything we’ve worked for through our life to get where we are today could be erased like rubber on a piece of paper.” >click to read< 07:21
Coronavirus: Urgent measures sought to help shellfish sector market undermined by continental closures
Discussions are ongoing with the Scottish Government for temporary help for the sector which is hardest hit among the local strands of the fishing industry. Shetland’s continental exports are mostly crab and scallop, but prawns (nephrops), which form a huge part of Scottish seafood exports, are also badly affected. Shetland Fishermen’s Association executive officer Simon Collins said that it was essential to support a sector that in normal times was very healthy in order to tide it over till the effects of coronavirus had broken. >click to read<08:40
UK Offshore Wind Farms Are Paid Millions Per Day Not To Run Turbines
Last week, millions of pounds in “constraint payments” were paid to wind energy farms to not run their turbines. Over £12 million was handed out to wind farms in the United Kingdom last week, following a major outage in a powerline that transported energy from Scottish wind farms to England. The handouts will be tacked onto consumers’ energy bills throughout the country.,, The firms cartels were paid between 25 and 80 percent more than they would have earned were the turbines actually running,,, >click to read< 10:28
Gear Wars: Scallop dredgers accused of sabotaging creel fishing gear
A minority of skippers vying to dredge for scallops off Peterhead and Fraserburgh have threatened creel fishermen and towed away their gear, resulting in miles of rope and tonnes of plastic left dumped in the ocean. At least 100 tonnes of crabs and lobsters are lost every year from gear vandalism off the east coast, according to creel fishermen who have accused Marine Scotland of complicity by failing to act. >click to read< 08:24
Fines to rogue fishermen fall and illegal fishing escapes prosecution, environmentalists claim
Concerns have been raised recently that fishermen are increasingly involved in illegal scallop dredging and prawn trawling to supply a black market in seafood, at the expense of Scotland’s marine environment.,,, Environmentalists claim that the Scottish Government is not treating damage to MPAs by boats as “serious crimes”. They have accused the official body tasked with protecting seas, Marine Scotland, of failing to take tough enforcement action against skippers breaking the law. >click to read< 13:54
Horror photos of farmed salmon spark legal threat
The diseases, damage and infestations suffered by hundreds of thousands of caged salmon in Scotland have been exposed by more than 300 graphic photos released by the Scottish Government. Pictures taken since 2015 by fish health inspectors investigating mass deaths at salmon farms along the west coast and on islands reveal eight diseases, bloody lesions, eye damage, deformed organs, plagues of flesh-eating sea lice and much else.,,, The investigations were into outbreaks of disease and other issues at 27 fish farms run by six companies. The majority – 15 – were at farms operated by Marine Harvest, along with four run by The Scottish Salmon Company, three by Scottish Sea Farms, three by Cooke Aquaculture, two by Greig Seafood, two by Loch Duart and one not known. >click to read<17:42
Search for missing fishermen over as Nancy Glen is recovered
An operation which took all night to complete saw the boat being lifted from the seabed just after 7.30am. Skipper Duncan MacDougall, 46, and crewman Przemek Krawczyk, 38, were still aboard the prawn trawler when it sank on January 18. A barge with a large crane attached raised the boat clear of the water took and took it to nearby Portavadie for salvage work to continue.,,,Following a fundraising campaign by the Clyde Fishermen’s Trust to “Bring Our Boys Home” the Scottish Government agreed to cover the costs of the salvage operation,,, >click to read<09:12
F/V Nancy Glen recovery mission launched
Tarbert fishermen Duncan MacDougall, 46, and Przemek Krawczyk, 38, lost their lives when the boat sank in Loch Fyne on January 18. Their bodies are still believed to be inside the boat. A third crewman, John Miller, 34, also from Tarbert, survived after being rescued by a passing vessel. The Nancy Glen is lying at a depth of 140 metres and the Scottish Government has contracted salvage experts to try and lift the boat high enough to allow divers to search inside.>click to read<08:53
Fishing boat to be raised from Loch Fyne to give families ‘closure’
Families of two dead fishermen have been given hope that they will be able to bury their loved ones after ministers announced they will look at salvaging the wreck.,,, The Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) had been surveying the site to decide if the wreck could be raised but said it could not. But the Scottish Government has said it will now work with salvage specialists and the families of the crewmen to support efforts to retrieve the bodies of the missing fishermen. >click to read< 13:54
Fishermen fear Scottish lobster stocks ‘could collapse’
Fishermen fear that lobster stocks could be on the verge of collapse after an increase in the numbers being caught and a surge in the value of the shellfish. Boat captains operating on the east coast say that fewer lobsters are being brought to shore, with smaller specimens among the catch than in previous years. The Scottish Government has recently introduced catch restrictions for unlicensed fishermen in a bid to keep the numbers being caught down. But there are fears that Scottish waters could be about to see stocks collapse similar to the situation which developed in Norway in the 1970s and 1980s. click here to read the story 10:07
North Sea cod gets MSC certification
At times during these moratorium years of the northern cod, people in this province have glanced at the North Sea to see how that cod stock was faring. Collapsed, recovered and collapsed again, North Sea cod over the years seemed on a different path than northern cod, and different methods were undertaken to attempt recovery and sustainability. On Wednesday, the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) announced that North Sea cod has received its distinguished certification after the stock passed an independent assessment against the MSC’s strict standards.,,, “Since then the industry has worked with the Scottish Government and EU Fisheries Council to agree and implement a ‘Cod Recovery Plan’ that would nurse the stock back to health. “The plan linked the number of days fishing that boats were given to the conservation measures they signed up to. click here to read the story 17:42
Scottish government accused of colluding with US drug giant over fish farm pesticides scandal
The Scottish Government allowed a US drug company to secretly rubbish a scientific study blaming one of its pesticides for killing wildlife in Scottish sea lochs. The Sunday Herald has uncovered that the £76 billion New Jersey multinational, Merck, hired reviewers to criticise evidence in a scientific study that the company’s fish farm chemical was causing widespread environmental damage. The scientists behind the study and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) privately protested about Merck’s involvement. But they were overruled by government and salmon industry officials who insisted that the company’s role should be kept secret. Merck’s behind-the-scenes influence has been exposed by more than 70 megabytes of internal documents released by the Crown Estate under freedom of information law. They also show that government and industry agreed not to issue a press release on the study. click here to read the story 13:23
US warns threat of an export ban over continued killing of seals by Scots fish farms
Ministers have received a warning about the continued shooting of seals by fish farms as the US poses the threat of an export ban which could cost the Scottish economy £200 million a year. New figures reveal that despite the salmon industry giving a “clear intention” to cut the number of seals shot to zero, fish farms and fisheries were continuing to kill them at a rate of over eight a month last year, under licence from the Scottish Government. The details have angered protesters who are concerned that that instead of finding alternative ways to deal with seals, fish farms are continuing to be content to shoot to kill. The US is now requiring proof that its seafood imports are harvested in a way that minimises harm to marine mammals. Later this year, the US is expected to release a country-by-country list of fisheries deemed acceptable and those deemed non-compliant. continue reading the story here 09:31
Holyrood plans crackdown on recreational caught seafood black market
A crackdown on “hobby fishers” who sell lobsters, prawns, crabs, scallops and other seafood for financial gain was welcomed by an industry leader last night. Scottish Creel Fishermen’s Federation (SCFF) chairman Alistair Sinclair said genuine commercial fishers supported efforts to end a practice which was widespread and had “been going on ever since people started to fish”. He was speaking after the Scottish Government launched a consultation on plans to introduce catch limits for hobby fishers in inshore waters. SCFF, which has 480 members around Scotland, has played a key role in discussions on the way forward for hobby and unlicensed fishermen. Mr Sinclair said: “It was widely recognised around the table that there is a black market serving people who want to procure their shellfish as cheaply as possible. “This affects bona fide fishermen who are trying to earn their living from the sea.” Read the rest here 14:41
EU Discard ban extended to haddock, langoustines and prawns
A ban designed to end the “wasteful” practice of throwing dead fish back into the sea is set to cover key stocks such as haddock. The discard ban has already been in place for 12 months for pelagic species like mackerel and herring. But at the start of the new year on Friday, the ban will apply to some other stocks such as haddock, langoustines and prawns. It means fishermen will have to land their whole catch of those stocks, rather than throwing any unmarketable fish overboard. Read the article here 11:04
Limits on inshore dredging off Scotland’s coast examined
The Scottish government is considering proposals to limit dredging and trawling in inshore waters to conserve fish and shellfish stocks. But more remote fishing areas in the Highlands and Islands could be hit by the proposals. The report said restrictions could lead to job losses in these places. Read more here 14:48
