One of the maddest examples of the EU’s immersion in a bureaucracy too often detached from realities on the ground – or on the water in this case – has been the plan to include sea angling catches in the quotas system.

This would have brought recreational sea angling within the controversial Common Fisheries Policy, seeing every fish caught included in annual quotas for species like cod, ling and pollock, even if they were returned to the sea.

Now Joe Borg, EU Fisheries Commissioner, has ruled out the planned controls on recreational sea anglers and will alter the wording of the regulations to confirm this. He has recognised that the rules were intended for those who catch for profit and not recreational anglers who take very little and only for their own use.

The sport is a major contributor to Scotland’s economy and, as For Argyll has reported before, of even greater value than golf. It brings in around £150million per annum but had been threatened with virtual extinction by this planned move from Brussels.