News and Views

SPFA announces new chief executive

Ian Gatt, the president of the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation, will be joining the Scottish Pelagic Fishermen’s Association on 6 April as its new chief executive. He will replace Derek Duthie, who is moving to the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation to become its new director of administration & finance.

Ian, who has been president of the SFF for the last three years, will step down as Federation president at the next executive committee meeting in June.

Alex Wiseman, chairman of SPFA commented: “I am delighted to welcome Ian Gatt to the Association. Ian is ideally placed to take on the post of chief executive as he has been closely involved in the politics of the fishing industry for a number of years and has attended the external fisheries negotiations, including the ongoing and crucially important mackerel consultations.”

Ian Gatt said: “I am delighted to be joining SPFA after an enjoyable period with SFF. I am looking to provide continuity in the representation of members interests at a time of uncertainty.”

Third Scottish pelagic fishery gains MSC certification

The Scottish Pelagic Sustainability Group (SPSG) celebrated the certification of its third fishery as sustainable and well-managed under the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) standard on 19 March at a lunch held at the Silver Darling restaurant in Aberdeen. The Atlanto-Scandian herring fishery was certified after a thirteen month assessment undertaken by Food Certification International. Herring from this fishery are now eligible to bear the MSC eco label.

SPSG pelagic trawlers fitted with the latest refrigerated seawater tank systems catch Atlanto-Scandian herring over a large area of the northeast Atlantic. The Scottish fleet will fish around 20,000 tonnes in 2010. Much of this is taken in February, the main fishing season, with the remainder caught in the autumn.

For further information including the full SPSG/MSC press release see: http://www.scottishpelagicsg.org/news/49-celebrating-certification-of-atlanto-scandian-herring.html

SPFA welcomes mackerel agreement as important first step

The Scottish Pelagic Fishermen's Association has welcomed the conclusion of the fisheries consultations between the EU and Norway for 2010 and the signing of a multi-annual mackerel agreement between the parties from 2011 while pointing out that securing the agreements came at a cost and that this is merely an important first step in finding a holistic solution to managing North East Atlantic mackerel. The Association is of the view that more work needs to be done to secure a fair deal for Community pelagic fishermen in the overall context of mackerel management.

The long-term bilateral mackerel deal includes agreement on important aspects such as; management objectives, relative quota shares, access arrangements, inter-annual quota flexibility and control and enforcement.

Association chairman, Alex Wiseman commented; “We are pleased that the Community has reached agreement with Norway on the long-term management of mackerel as it is absolutely essential to the future sustainability of the mackerel stock for the two principle stakeholders to have common positions.

“This agreement provides a platform for the EU and Norway to negotiate together with the other existing Coastal State, the Faroe Islands, and also with Iceland when they all get together in March. What we need is an agreement that includes all parties but one that does not in any way reward irresponsible behaviour.

“There are elements of the settlement which are however rather one-sided in Norway’s favour. For example, we are concerned that the level of access the Norwegian fleet will have to fish mackerel in our waters is very high in comparison to the level of flexibility we have to fish our western mackerel in the North Sea as the stock migrates. This is something that needs to be addressed internally within the EU and we hope that the additional flexibility gained for 2010 can be improved upon in future. As I have said before, it is the overall quantity of fish removed from the stock that matters, not where the fish are caught.”

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