Scott Meets Fisheries Secretary Regarding Whitefish Industry

Shetland MSP Tavish Scott today met Fisheries Secretary Richard Lochhead to raise local fishing industry concerns over the impact that the December Fisheries Council will have on the Shetland whitefish industry.

Tavish Scott said, “I am very concerned that our boats simply won’t have the days at sea in 2012 to catch their quotas. The European Commission calamitous handling of the negotiations means a further cut in days that our boats will have which could means as few as four days a fortnight at sea. There’s no other business I know that has to comply with such ludicrous rules when quotas for some species have actually been increased.

“I have every sympathy for the Scottish Minister because he had agreement with Spain, Germany, France and the UK Government and yet the Commission hid behind a legal technicality to force through these cuts against the wishes of elected governments. The cod recovery plan should be renamed ‘the whitefish industry destruction plan’.