Ministers are being urged to end a \u201cpointless\u201d 20-year-old policy of seasonal closures of fishing waters in the Clyde, amid claims that stocks of cod have failed to recover over the past two decades.<\/p>\n
Seasonal closures have been imposed every year\u00a0since 2001, prohibiting fishing in spawning grounds at a key time in their breeding season.<\/p>\n
The closure,\u00a0which typically runs from from mid-February to the end of April,\u00a0was brought in to help levels of cod recover in the Firth of Clyde.<\/p>\n
However a newly published PhD says this has not happened because of year-round fishing by prawn trawlers, which are exempt from the closure.<\/p>\n
The paper by Strathclyde University student Ana Adao says \u201cthe chances of recovery for the whiting and cod stocks are minimal\u201d as a result.<\/p>\n
It adds: \u201cEven though targeted fishing for white fish had effectively ceased by the early 2000s, there are still no signs of stock recovery in the Clyde.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scottish ministers are said to have made \u201csubstantial changes\u201d to their consultation document on future Clyde closures, with the Sustainable Inshore Fisheries Trust (Sift) saying this included a \u201cwildly inaccurate summary of the science\u201d around management of fish stocks.<\/p>\n
Sift has demanded a\u00a0new approach\u00a0from the Scottish Government to eliminate cod bycatch from prawn trawling, which sees any cod that are caught discarded by boats.<\/p>\n
The trust\u2019s executive director Charles Millar said the research \u201cblows the long-running seasonal closure approach to recovering Clyde cod stocks out of the water\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said the policy of seasonal closures is \u201cflawed\u201d, adding: \u201cThe evidence clearly points to the fact that Clyde cod stocks will only recover when bycatch of cod and other white fish in prawn trawl nets is halted.<\/p>\n
\u201cUntil the science is listened to, fishing in the Clyde, now almost entirely dependent upon shellfish, will remain extremely vulnerable to collapse \u2013 and this is made worse by the rapid warming of our seas and massive losses of species and habitat diversity.<\/p>\n
\u201cMinisters need to come clean about what they are trying to achieve. Either they want the Clyde to remain a shellfish monoculture with no prospect of a recovered white fish fishery, or they must take the necessary action to bring back fish stocks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking as a consultation on seasonal closures comes to an end on Thursday,\u00a0he called on the Government to \u201cthink again\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mr Millar urged ministers to bring in a fisheries management regime \u201cwhich recognises that bycatch in prawn trawls is blocking the recovery of fish stocks, and bring an end to its pointless 20-year-old policy of relying on temporary closures in the Firth\u201d.<\/p>\n
Bally Philp, co-ordinator for the Scottish Creel Fishermen\u2019s Federation,\u00a0said the Clyde is \u201ca ghost of its former abundant self\u201d with \u201cits ecology in decline alongside its fleet\u201d.<\/p>\n
Calling for for an end to \u201c20 years\u00a0of failure\u201d of the closure policy, he added: \u201cThe Clyde can again be a thriving fishing ground for my fellow creelers, for the trawl sector, and eventually for a cod fleet again as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut that will require bringing in protections and management measures that can really deliver.\u201d<\/p>\n
A Scottish Government spokesman said: \u201cWhile there were some technical scientific changes made to the consultation paper, these were not substantial, and we do not recognise the characterisation set out.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would like to thank all of those who have responded to the consultation so far as it sets out important options for stakeholders to consider.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe consultation is still live so it would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage and we will fully consider all responses received.\u201d<\/p>\n
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ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ministers are being urged to end a \u201cpointless\u201d 20-year-old policy of seasonal closures of fishing waters in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":449365,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5009],"tags":[748,101611,151169,6481,4884,712,11312,151170,151171,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-449364","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scotland","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-clyde","10":"tag-cod","11":"tag-fishing","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-scotland","14":"tag-scottish-government","15":"tag-seasonal-closure","16":"tag-sustainable-inshore-fisheries-trust","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115262584626483374","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/449365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}