3,500 tonnes – that is the minimum estimate of fish thrown back into the Clyde as ‘by-catch’ and ‘discards’. (But there’s more.)

Most of this 3,500 tonnes of fish are already dead or will die as a result of the stress encountered by being caught and subjected to the nets and the handling process. According to the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), food has become an issue at the four corners of the globe, with 13% of the world’s population undernourished. With numerous ‘agreements’ from Nations to address this problem, what is actually being done?

An incomplete jigsaw

The figure of 3,500 tonnes has been taken from the Clyde Fisheries Development Project, in a report titled, Sustainable Supply Chain Project Report (Chapter 4, Catch, bycatch and discards” page 122). This figures relates to the Clyde – only a small fraction of the sea area under Scottish government authority. If you multiply this figure to include the whole of Scottish or UK waters, the tonnage of fish/food discarded is obscene.

This 3,500 tonnes of dead fish discarded in the Clyde alone does not include:

• the illegal ‘black’ catch. Some fishermen carry on fishing after they have reached their allowed quotas, working outside of the law and landing this ‘black catch’ away from scrutiny. In some places such catches have been estimated to equal the allowable fishing quotas
• the week’s end bycatch of fishermen from Ireland who fish the Clyde and return their catch in that county on the way home for the weekend.

A convenient discrepancy

As if this massive 3,500 tonnes of wasted food is not bad enough, it appears that a scandal may be in the making.

On the 21st May 2007 a paper was presented to the members of the Clyde Working Group, which included a paper entitled: ‘Estimate of catch and bycatch of fish by Clyde Nephrops trawlers’. (Nephrops are Dublin Bay prawns.) This report uses the same data and time period as the Sustainable Supply Chain Project Report referred to above and yet it suggests that the bycatch and discards are 1,000 tonnes less – at 2,5000 tonnes of fish dead or stressed fish which will probably die being thrown back into the sea.

As ForArgyll went online to bring this report to you, nobody was available for comment from  Seafish, a non departmental government body. This report’s author worked for Seafish but has since left and it appears that Seafish are part-funders for the project. Members of the working group are not happy with this discrepancy and ForArgyll will investigate further.

Habitat destruction

The report also lists some interesting and further disturbing facts.

• Firstly, 27 tonnes of litter and rocks were lifted in nets along with a whopping 242 tonnes of organic waste, mainly seaweed. Litter is a reflection on us and our way of living, Supermarkets have now joined the campaign to reduce waste but we still need to improve on both the amount of waste and how we treat it.
• Secondly, in relation to the seaweed and other ‘organic’ waste mentioned above -  this is not organic waste’. It is fishery production area habitat. This seaweed forms part of an important ecosystem on which our future fish stocks depend.

So, not only do we have a discrepancy in the figures reported concerning discards, the illegal black catch has not been included and there has been no mention of the effects of ecosystem destruction by mobile fishing sectors in inshore waters.

This report was titled ‘Sustainable’ Project Report. It most certainly does not reflect a situation of sustainability for the local habitats that fish and other species require for healthy reproduction.

Death of the future – the unpublished figures

All of this is occurring right under our noises, within the Six Mile Scottish Limit. All of it is under the control of the Scottish Government. None of these problems are covered by the Common Fishery Policy. None of the problems are being addressed in the pending Marine (Scotland) Bill.

A report was disseminated at the AGM of Community of Arran Seabed Trust (COAST) which included appalling figures on the destruction of young fish caught in prawn nets and thrown back as unwanted. These deaths have been concealed by the simple tactic of giving an unspecified tonnage of bycatch, but we can now reveal the vast numbers of immature young fish being killed and discareded in this way.

These figures have not yet been published elsewhere — they appear here for the first time. They are from a 2007 survey of prawn trawling by the industry itself and passed to Howard Wood, Chair of COAST, by a friendly fisherman. They reveal that the numbers of juvenile fish destroyed as bycatch in a 10 month period was as follows:

• 292,533 Hake
• 641,321 Cod
• 1.25 million Plaice
• 5.8 million Haddock
• 11 million Whiting
• 12.3 million other fish species

This is a total of 31,329,115 dead juvenile fish. 

That’s 31 Million fish with the average size of just 63 grams and they are – were – the future.

In addition to these juveniles, 40 million Crustaceans (crabs) were also destroyed.

This information demolishes any contention by the industry that stocks are being encouraged to regenerate.

Another worrying fact was that the report list several categories as ‘N/A’, yet ForArgyll has been told by a fisherman who wishes to remain anonymous that figures for these categories were listed and were probably removed as they were too embarrassing.

Prawns and scallops are the only fishable species left in the waters that surround Arran and this includes the Argyll area within the Clyde. As Howard Wood (Chair COAST) points out, their stocks, too, will collapse unless seasonal closures are agreed. Annual breaks from fishing would allow these creatures to breed and grow bigger, and would actually benefit fishermen as the marketable end-product would be of better size and more valuable.

Mr Wood said, ‘We have known about the discard problem in the Clyde for many years. Why is the government still supporting the trawling associations? We need a radical change in policy regarding discards’.

The surface picture

The following extract was taken from the Clyde Fisheries Development Project website.  It ‘aims to facilitate a brighter future for Clyde fisheries by encouraging fishermen, scientists, and organisations concerned with the environment to work together to develop the local fishery in a sustainable way’.

Historically, whitefish and pelagic stocks, (the pelagic area is the open sea not close to the seabed) particularly herring, were important Clyde fisheries. However, these have declined over the past 20 years and at least some of the decline is due to overfishing. There remains a healthy fishery for Nephrops norvegicus, better known as Dublin Bay Prawn, Scottish Langoustine or simply ‘prawn’.

The main objectives for the Clyde Fisheries Development Project are to:

1. review local fisheries, fish stocks and fisheries’ environmental impacts;
2. develop and promote best practice in the operations and management of Clyde fisheries, including a set of quality and environmental standards;
3. oversee a development programme as agreed by the Group aimed at improving sustainability and the long-term social and economic prospects of the fishery and those dependent upon it;
4. devise the means by which sustainability targets are improved on a year on year basis;
5. identify research priorities and facilitate studies in connection with the agreed development programme.

The report finishes by saying: ‘It is hoped that the Clyde Fisheries Development Project, the first initiative of its kind in the UK, will become a blueprint for the future of inshore fisheries in Scotland. The intention is to unite fishing and environmental interests in the shared goal of a diverse marine environment that supports a prosperous fishery for generations to come’.

If the picture given in the report is the ‘blueprint’ of things to come, we had better start developing a taste for ‘jellyfish soup’ and ‘seaweed burgers’, because that’s all that will eventually be left – not forgetting the toxic algal blooms, of course.

Mark Carter, Environmental Editor

Other recent articles by Mark carter and of current interest are:

• Public invited to comment on Sounf of Mull fiasco
• Marine Coastal Access Act a black day for marine environment
  

The photograph above, by copyright holder Mark Carter, is of part of the Clyde waterway, looking past Pladda island and lighthouse to Ailsa Craig, adjacent to Argyll’s Clyde waters.

Related Posts

• Mather backs call for reform of Common Fisheries Policy (0)
• Creelers and scallop divers: environmentally friendly fisheries (3)
• Scottish EC fishing gains include support for ‘Catch less, land more’ (0)
• West coast prawn boats exempt from Days at Sea restriction (1)
• Fiction and fact in the risk to Scotland’s fishing industry (2)

---

The Latest News from ForArgyll delivered via email, weekly or daily. You know it makes sense!

---

Comments (rss) | Respond | Ping | | Print This Post