Tavish Scott: Iceland reels in EU like illegally-caught fish

Have you bought fish and chips recently? Or monkfish in a restaurant? Or my favourite, which is mackerel in brine? Apart from watching the Trawlerman series on television the public’s knowledge of the industry is understandably limited.

Yet one aspect of the industry may be about to break cover into mainstream news. Mackerel swim in enormous shoals covering miles of sea and are caught in huge quantities. But unlike cod, haddock or whiting, a fishing boat catches just mackerel and not other species. That helps good management because fishermen, scientists and fisheries managers can assess the stock and make sensible decisions about how many are in the sea. The boats catch mackerel worth tens of millions of pounds and sell the product across the world. This is an international business. The Scottish pelagic fleet is concentrated in Shetland and the north-east ports of Fraserburgh and Peterhead. The quantity of mackerel in the sea is managed by the European Commission, which negotiates annually with Norway, Russia and other countries bordering the North Sea and north Atlantic Ocean, where mackerel swim.

It is sustainably managed, so the Marine Stewardship Council gave this fishery accredited status. But a little noticed aspect of the world’s banking crash has created a row that has the potential to recreate the cod wars of the 1970s. Then, Royal Navy ships sailed in Icelandic waters to protect British fishing boats trying to legally catch cod. Iceland prevailed, driving the British fleet home. Our fishermen have not forgotten. Iceland caught very little mackerel before 2008. But this year it unilaterally decided to catch 145,000 tonnes. There is no scientific basis for this catch and it puts the sustainability of mackerel in doubt. The Faroese are up to the same illegal trick.

Why? Iceland needs the money. The banking crisis has hit its economy hard. It needs hard currency and selling fish produces that. Iceland also pretends that joining the European Union is part of its economic recovery plan. That makes for cute politics. The European Commission should stop it fishing illegally. Agreement has been reached that would impose trade sanctions on the illegally caught mackerel. But so far no action has actually been taken. The EU would like Iceland to join.

So the canny Icelandics play one part of Europe off against the other. Those fishermen who remember the 1970s cod wars say Iceland has form here. The EU will eventually cave in, grant Iceland a proportion of the mackerel caught, to which it has no right, and then encourage it to join the EU.

The UK and Scottish governments have acted together on this to make the case for sanctions to be imposed. The UK fisheries minister, meeting fishing skippers in Shetland this week, reiterated his commitment to action. He also expressed exasperation about the lack of European action. “When will sanctions that work happen?” asked the skippers. Good question.

l Tavish Scott is Liberal Democrat MSP for Shetland