from Sunday Herald, 29 January 2012
Scottish fishing boats are under fire for trawling seas far from home for catches of tuna, shark, swordfish, mackerel and sardines.
The Sunday Herald can reveal that at least five vessels registered in Scotland have been licensed to fish as far afield as the Indian Ocean and off the northwest African coast.
Along with boats from elsewhere in Europe, they are facing criticisms that they are plundering foreign seas, damaging local fishing industries and threatening fish stocks.
As fish stocks in European waters have declined, big fishing businesses have increasingly searched further afield for more lucrative and less depleted waters. Scottish fishermen, already in straightened circumstances, are also keen to exploit foreign waters in order to keep operating.
According to a new study for the conservation group, WWF, a third of the world’s ocean surface is now being heavily fished, ten times more than in the 1950s.
Over 700 vessels from European Union (EU) countries are now exploiting seas outwith the EU, mostly from Spain, France and Portugal. But they also include nine vessels registered in the UK, five of them in Scotland.
“It will surprise many people to learn that Scottish-registered boats, along with hundreds of others from across Europe, are catching fish as far away as Morocco and the Indian Ocean,” said Dr Richard Dixon, the director of WWF Scotland.
“Most of the fish stocks in these areas have little or no protection from over-fishing. We are demanding changes to the rules governing fishing to ensure vessels that fish abroad follow the same rules and respect the same sustainability principles as those operating within EU waters.”
Four Scottish boats have been licensed to fish in the Indian Ocean under EU agreements with Madagascar and Mozambique. The Mar de Bens, the Mar de Creta, the Blue Gate and the Tahume can fish for tuna, sharks and swordfish, except southern blue-fin tuna and thresher sharks.
A deal between Morocco and the EU to allow European boats the right to fish off Africa has caused a fierce political row due to fears that it would damage fish populations and infringe the rights of local communities. There was concern that EU boats could not be prevented from overfishing in foreign waters.
The £30-million-a-year agreement with Morocco was suspended last month after it was voted down by the European parliament. However, the European Commission is currently trying to renegotiate the deal to get European boats back in Moroccan waters.
One Scottish boat, The Krossfjord, registered at Banff, fished for mackerel and sardines off the western Sahara before the suspension of the deal. The area was annexed by Morocco in 1976, and the native Sahrawi people have been fighting for independence.
The EU fishing deal “intensifies the Moroccan repression of the Sahrawi people,” according to Aminatua Haidar, a Sahrawi humans rights activist. “The agreement threatens the future of our younger generation, who are condemned to lead a life in poverty,” she said. Her people were not consulted about the “plundering of natural resources”.
Fishsubsidy.org, a group that campaigns against secret subsidies, is preparing a report on “under the radar” EU fishing agreements. “We're concerned that there are very few safeguards to ensure European vessels do not further plunder unsustainable fish stocks,” said the group’s Jack Thurston.
“We're also worried about how very large and heavily subsidised European fishing vessels are making it harder for the local fishing communities to make a living.”
Fishing off northwest Africa, however, was defended by Ian Gatt, the chief executive of the Scottish Pelagic Fishermen's Association. He pointed out that the Krossfjord had invested in a factory in Dhakla, Western Sahara, which employs 300 Sahrawi people.
Their jobs were now threatened by the suspension of the EU agreement with Morocco, he warned. “If the EU stops fishing there, its place will be taken by countries with no sustainability scruples at all like China, Russia and Korea.”
The Scottish government argued that EU agreements can help other countries develop sustainable fishing industries. “We are currently actively considering revisions on all our external waters licences to ensure that endangered species are better protected,” said a government spokesman.
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