Hansard

I am pleased to take part in this important debate on the annual EU fisheries negotiations, which commence on 15 December. The outcome of the negotiations is vital to Scotland’s fishermen—the people who risk their lives to put fish on our tables—its processors and the fishing communities along our coastlines.

We agree with the Scottish Government that our Scottish vessels need to retain the number of days that they can go to sea and that cuts are simply not acceptable. We are encouraged that last week’s EU-Norway talks resulted in an increase in quota allocations for a number of key stocks for Scottish fishermen, including cod, haddock and plaice. I am also encouraged by what the cabinet secretary told us about hopes for an increase in west coast haddock.

Those increases are in line with scientific advice. The stocks are in good health in large part due to the sacrifices that our Scottish fleet has made over the long and difficult period of the cod recovery plan and to the innovative and important conservation measures that our vessels adopted, which have been significant and have surpassed by far any other EU fleet’s efforts.

The vessel numbers in our demersal fleet have declined by around 60 per cent compared with the numbers during the first session of the Parliament. The EU needs to recognise that fact in next week’s talks. If further effort reduction is proposed, the cabinet secretary must ensure that the burden falls on other EU states and not Scotland’s fishermen, who have already done much. Our Scottish fleet must now be able to enjoy some of the benefits after the pain of the last decade and a half or more.

Fishermen and their representatives have asked me to highlight a number of the key issues facing their sectors, and I am most happy to do so.

One of the key, most pressing and immediate issues facing our pelagic fishermen is the implementation of the discard ban—or landing obligation—in their sector from the start of 2015. Scottish pelagic fishermen rightly want to ensure that a level playing field for the control, monitoring and enforcement of the ban is truly achieved across all the pelagic boats that fish in EU waters, whether the vessels are from third countries or other member states. I know that the cabinet secretary agrees with that. That level playing field is vital.

There is clearly also a huge amount of work to be done next year to prepare for the introduction of the landing obligation for the demersal sector in 2016, which will bring even greater challenges than the introduction in the pelagic sector. There are real concerns in the white-fish sector about the practical implications of the discard ban. Working out a usable scheme that does not penalise our white-fish boats must be a big priority for next year.

Bertie Armstrong, of the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation, has described the process leading to the landing obligation laws as

“a shining beacon of dysfunction”

that has the potential to do

“significant damage to the fishing industry and communities of Scotland.”

I agree with the sensible suggestion in Tavish Scott’s amendment that a phased approach must be considered.

The Scottish Pelagic Fishermen’s Association, the Scottish Pelagic Processors Association and the Shetland Fishermen’s Association are all clear that another priority for their industry is the need to achieve a fairer deal in terms of the EU-Faroes mackerel fishery quota access agreement, which currently is totally skewed in favour of the Faroes.

Between 2007 and 2013, the Faroes never exceeded a mackerel catch of 8,771 tonnes in EU—that is, Scottish—waters off Shetland. However, in 2014, that catch was a massive 46,850 tonnes. The level of the mackerel access quota must be addressed. Why do the Faroes require a third of their quota to be fished off the Scottish coastline when the mackerel stock has become so much more abundant in their own waters? The current situation means that the Faroes are benefiting hugely from catching mackerel in prime condition in our waters while not one kilo of the EU’s mackerel quota has been caught in the Faroese zone.

The nephrops fishery remains an important and economically valuable one on the west coast of my region, and its associated jobs help to underpin often fragile local communities. I share the real concern of the Clyde Fishermen’s Association about the proposal for a significant cut in catch in the Firth of Clyde functional unit, although I note with some relief that there is a projected rise in the South Minch area. Nephrops fishermen in the Clyde area want to know what measures Marine Scotland will take to reverse the trend, and the Clyde Fishermen’s Association is urging it to look again at its proposals that the minimum nephrops tail size be raised from 35mm to 46mm, and the overall length from 70mm to 85mm.

I also want to mention the possible consultation on scallop fishing that has been pushed for by the Clyde Fishermen’s Association since 1995.

On my amendment to today’s motion, I would just refer to previous comments that have been made by Bertie Armstrong. I do not wish to be called arrogant—