Scottish fishermen have designs on netting more profit

Published on Monday 30 May 2011 15:06

SCOTLAND'S prawn fishermen have joined forces with net manufacturers and designers in a bid to devise new trawling gear which will allow unwanted fish species to escape from their langoustine nets.

Shellfish landings, primarily of nephrops - also known as prawns or langoustines - are worth almost 150 million a year to Scottish fishermen.

And it was revealed yesterday that a major drive has been launched by the Scottish Fishermen's Federation's nephrops focus group to investigate and devise innovative ideas for net designs that will significantly reduce and hopefully eliminate discards.

The focus group has already held a summit meeting of fishermen, Marine Scotland management, gear manufacturers and experts at the federation's headquarters in Aberdeen.

A spokesman for the federation said: "Four gear suppliers - Gamrie Bay Nets, Scotnet, Faithlie Trawls and Pisces - have been working on new designs, and it was decided to trial the ideas over the coming months with an objective of producing two workable gear designs by January 2012."

Bertie Armstrong, the chief executive of the SFF, said: "The wealth of available experience? will be fully utilised, starting immediately with trials of innovative selective nets."