|
Two Danish industrial trawlers have been arrested for catching an alleged 625 tonnes of whitefish in a single trip in the North Sea.
The industrial trawlers are reported to have been banned from going to sea for a month by authorities at Thyboron. The “bycatches” – equivalent to a year’s haul for a typical Scottish whitefish trawler – were to be rendered into fishmeal for pig feed or salmon pellets.
According to the Scottish National Party, which contacted harbour authorities on hearing of the arrest, the Craceland and the Heidi Malene No 1 each had 500 tonnes of catch aboard. One vessel had 73 per cent illegal whitefish and the other 50 per cent illegal whitefish on board, making an estimated total of 625 tonnes.
Scottish Shadow Fisheries Minister Richard Lochhead called on Rural Development Minster Ross Finnie to carry out a full investigation into the incident and raise it at the highest European level. But he slammed the punishment as minimal given the boats would have been tied up for much of the time for the festive season anyway.
Mr Lochhead added: "We have just confirmed with Danish authorities in Thyboron Port in Denmark that the boats have indeed been arrested. I am very concerned that two Danish vessels appear to have been caught with such a huge illegal whitefish catch.
“If reports are to be believed then these two boats combined took around 625 tonnes of white fish from one trip. That's more than some Scottish boats catch in a year.
"We have been told by a source in the port that the boats have been ordered as punishment to tie up in harbour for a month, but that they don't care because it is Christmas. A Scottish boat would be facing a fine of up to GBP 50,000.
"There is no better illustration of why Scots fishermen are so angry and disillusioned when they are bending over backwards to conserve fish stocks while foreign vessels fishing alongside them are hoovering the seas clean of juvenile whitefish.”
Peterhead trawlerman Peter Bruce, the skipper of Budding Rose, branded the catches a “disgrace” at a time when the Scottish white fish sector was being penalised to protect demersal stocks.
"We have bent over backwards for conservation over the last 10 years and yet this is still going on,” he said. "I have heard suggestions that one of these vessels had a 73 per cent by catch of human consumption species on board instead of the permitted 20 per cent, while the other vessel had 51 per cent."
The vessels were said to be fishing about 120 miles north-east of Peterhead when they were arrested. Skipper Bruce added that it was ridiculous there was no will to curb industrial fishing in EU waters yet the Commission wanted to halt demersal trawling with 110mm and 120mm nets.
Mr Lochhead wrote to the minister calling for a full investigation “in order to reassure Scottish fishermen that their own good efforts are not being flouted by foreign skippers”.
He also wanted to make sure the Danish authorities prosecuted the “guilty skippers to the full extent of the law and make sure that the penalties fit the crime."
According to the SNP, a Danish report on industrial fishing that said there was very low white fish bycatch, and virtually no cod bycatch, just “did not tally” with evidence such as the two most recent arrests.
By Peter Johnson
FIS Europe
|
