A Shetland fishing skipper has highlighted scientific work that suggests trawling may benefit, rather than harm, marine life on the ocean floor.
James Anderson, who skippers the Lerwick-registered Alison Kay, says the research backs up his own view that environmental groups’ claims about fishing and its effects on the seabed are exaggerated.
Yesterday, the Press and Journal revealed how quota cuts imposed to save cod from extinction could actually be harming the North Sea, because the species is now so strong it is eating too many fish.
A report by influential scientific body the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea talked about an “abundance” of cod in Scottish waters.
Growing cod numbers are having an adverse impact on other species, including haddock, herring and whiting, according to the scientists.
Despite this, environmental body the Marine Conservation Society has urged consumers not to eat North Sea cod. Mr Anderson has reached his conclusion after nearly 30 years as a trawlerman.
The supporting evidence is an article by Dutch scientists in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society of Biological Sciences.
One of the authors, Daniel van Denderen of the Wageningen Institute for Marine Resources and Ecosystem Studies, said the removal of large crustaceans and other shellfish from the seabed by trawls helped smaller, softer species to flourish, because it meant there were fewer predators around.
Since the smaller species tended to be the main source of food for fish, the overall effect was more marine life, said Mr van Denderen.
“Fish persist at trawling intensities where they would have gone extinct otherwise,” he added.
Mr Anderson said: “We fish the same seabed all the time. We have been doing that since I left school. You don’t just ruin a place and move on – if that was the case, the fishing would have been finished a long time ago.
“The fishing is as good now as I can ever remember. We’ve never caught so much so quickly and good quality fish too. It’s good to see some scientific backing for what we see.”
Conservation groups have complained for years that modern fishing methods are causing carnage on the seabed and destroying many of the species.
Mr Anderson said he was not opposed to cordoning off areas of seabed to protect sensitive ecosystems.
He added: “If you get a lot of small cod, for instance, that hang around an area, it’s maybe beneficial to say: ‘We’ll leave that bit’. I don’t mind.
“But when you hear the more extreme trawling is bad, there are a lot of arguments against it.”