Jamie McGrigor MSP has responded to today’s statement from the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Richard Lochhead - that the Scottish Government is considering urgent action to address the exceptionally high level of prawn fishing activities in the west of Scotland,
McGrigor, Scottish Conservative Fisheries Spokesman, had raised the matter with the Scottish Government some weeks ago, after it was raised with him by the Western Isles Fishermen’s Association during his recent visit; and by other fishing constituents on the west coast.
He says: “While I appreciate Richard Lochhead’s message that fishermen must be able to catch their quotas, the fact is that the Scottish Government was informed some time ago that North Sea boats were fishing in traditional west coast fishing grounds, namely the WC TR2 fishing grounds.
‘So why did they not foresee this problem?
‘Are they going to now recompense the WC TR2 fleet for the losses and pain that they may have to face?
‘ The small west coast prawn boats are limited in scope and must be able to fish their traditional prawn grounds in order to maintain their livelihoods.
‘The Scottish Government, through its agencies must allow west coast fishermen the means to make a living and they should be aware of what is going on in Scottish waters so that they can plan for shortfalls.’
You can’t help saying ‘I told you so’ or, a five year old could have worked this out. The pressure on the white fish, pelagic?, boats would eventually force them down the fishing food chain with disastrous consequences.
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The BBC report today suggests that it’s a dearth of prawns in the North Sea that has brought east coast boats over to the west (‘biological factors had led to the shellfish appearing later than normal’) – so it doesn’t seem to be related to pressure on fish stocks, except perhaps indirectly if the east coast boats converted from fishing to prawn harvesting at some time in the past.
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Fishing effort is measured in kilowatt hours/days.
1 large East Coast boat uses as much effort in one 24hr kwday as 3 traditional West Coast vessels, if they come West it puts pressure on the kwhrs allocated to the West Coast, it arose because 48 NE vessels came West and used as much effort as 144 traditional West Coast vessels.
So there you have it in a nutshell, it is more complicated but that is it put simply as possible.
Effort is on the agenda because of the Cod Recovery Program,
even though 90% of West Coast boats do not catch Cod.
An area where there is no cod nor ever has been since Adam was a boy is in Brussels speak “a Cod depleted area”
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