Dutch skippers are in the same boat as their Scottish counterparts in not satisfactory answers to concerns about the looming ban on white-fish discards, a Scots MEP said yesterday.
Ian Duncan said fishers in the Netherlands were facing the same “trouble” after the phased ban kicks in from the start of next year.
He added: “It is cold comfort, but Scottish fishermen are not alone in contemplating the future with some trepidation.
“Last week I found myself on Urk, the largest fishing port in the Netherlands.
Peter van Dalen MEP, my colleague on the European Parliament’s fisheries committee, invited me to meet Dutch fishing leaders and talk about the issues facing the fishermen of the southern North Sea.
“It was interesting to contrast the challenges north and south of the same sea.
“In both areas it is the discard ban which is most feared. In the southern North Sea, flat fish are the principal catch and plaice the choke species (in abundance and potentially “choking” quota allocations).
“In the northern North Sea, white-fish are key and cod the choke.”
The Tory MEP added: “In both Scotland and the Netherlands, the governments have yet to offer a workable solution to the unmarketable landings which will follow the discard ban.
“In both the Netherlands and Scotland, no one seems sure of the scale of the problem. Peter and I have our work cut out keeping up the pressure on our respective governments to ensure that the landings ban in brought in a workable fashion.”
On the plus side, Mr Duncan said fishers in both Scotland and the Netherlands shared more than common problems after embracing innovation and “out-of-the net thinking”.
He added: “There will be challenges ahead, however, as we left Urk Peter and I were in agreement. The answers to those challenges lie far closer to the pier-head than they do to downtown Brussels.”