More Scots boats land illegal fish

Published on Sunday 5 September 2004 00:29

DESPERATE Scottish fishermen are breaking tough new laws aimed at protecting threatened white fish stocks by landing illegal catches, according to a government watchdog.

The number of skippers landing so-called ‘black fish’ has doubled in the last year since stringent quotas were enforced by the EU.

Paul du Vivier, the Scottish Fisheries Protection Agency’s chief executive, said Scottish skippers are taking every chance to outwit the law to land some of Europe’s most popular species, including cod and haddock.

Even though the fleet has shrunk, with more than 170 boats now decommissioned, the number of offences resulting in prosecution reports sent to the SFPA rose by more than 105%, from 53 in 2002-3, to 109 in 2003-4. The increase comes despite the number of foreign boats boarded in Scottish waters dropping from 31% to 25% of the total.

That, say conservationists, could threaten the recovery of some of Scotland’s most popular fish, with the majority of commercially fished species already well below safe biological limits.

Hit by a range of measures to reduce fishing levels in the North Sea, including decommissioning of boats and quota cuts, many fishermen have been pushed to the limits to make ends meet.

Du Vivier, writing in the SFPA annual report, said the fishing fleets posed a serious challenge to the fishery officers trying to track them down.

He wrote: "Enforcement staff have faced considerable challenges in the exercise of their powers over the catching sector of the industry, which has continued to chance its arm wherever opportunity has presented itself to exploit loopholes in the regulations."

Fishermen argue that it was the increasing complexity and rapidly changing EU rules that made them unintentionally fall foul of the law. But while the SFPA admits rules have become complicated, it argues some fishermen simply used that as an excuse to break the rules to deliberately overfish, damaging the valuable finite stocks.