Today’s No vote removes some of the uncertainty that was troubling Scottish fishing chiefs but there are other big imponderables on the horizon.
Will the new powers promised to Scotland by Prime Minister David Cameron, Deputy PM Nick Clegg and Labour leader Ed Miliband give the country any greater say in decisions affecting the industry in Scotland?
And does the prospect of an in-out referendum on the UK’s European Union membership – a No 10 pledge – not create just as many fears about how Scotland’s fishing fleet will be governed in the future.
In the run-up to the big independence vote, fishing chiefs voiced fears about Scotland being kicked out of the EU and all that would mean for their industry.
A UK withdrawal from the EU would put them in exactly the same situation.
That outcome is a distinct possibility given the antipathy many people around Britain have towards Brussels.
The EU’s all-encompassing Common Fisheries Policy has never been universally popular but it still dictates how much fish can be caught each year.
Every December, skippers wait with bated breath to find out what their quotas are for the next 12 months and – perhaps more importantly – how many days they will be allowed at sea.
The customary last-minute horse-trading at each end-of-year Fisheries Council in Brussels leads to increasing demands on an industry which has had to endure years of quota and days-at-sea cuts in the name of fish stock conservation, not to mention large-scale decommissioning of boats, in recent years.
UK fisheries ministers hail every outcome as a success for their negotiating tactics in fending off more savage cuts, but they are often condemned in Scotland for not doing nearly enough.
Scotland’s corner has been fought in recent years by Fisheries Secretary Richard Lochhead, who has frequently urged Westminster to let him take lead role in the talks.
Most of the UK fleet is based in Scotland, he argued. But London always insisted that as Scotland was not the member state its interests must be represented at UK level.
So what now?
Has Mr Lochhead’s bargaining position improved as a result of Westminster bowing to pressure to deliver more powers to Holyrood?
Scottish Fishermen’s Federation chief executive Bertie Armstrong said: “While the decision has been made for the constitutional status quo, as far as fishing is concerned there will most definitely need to be change in how we work together as an EU member state.
“For the last 18 months, the Scottish Government has lived in two parallel universes; engaging in normal business such as international negotiations but pursuing at every opportunity the argument for separation.
“It had a mandate for this and it was absolutely right and necessary for the referendum process to run its course.
“But now that the referendum is over, the Scottish and UK governments need to work together as closely as possible.
“There are many challenges facing fishing – most notably the forthcoming discards ban, which has the potential to devastate our fishing fleets.
“We have had enough arm-wrestling during the independence debate – now is the time to work as a united team to get the best deal possible for fishing.
“We will be contacting both (Scottish and UK) fisheries ministers in the coming days to set this in train and we are committed to playing our part in the process.”
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