Fishing association urges ministers not to give Kirkella more quota
Shetland Fishermen’s Association (SFA) has warned ministers not to cave to a campaign to give more quota to a foreign-owned vessel which operates out of a British port.
Scottish Pelagic Fishermen’s Association chief executive Ian Gatt and SFA executive officer Simon Collins said lobbying by UK Fisheries to secure more fish for the Kirkella must be resisted.
Mr Gatt said that though the boat operates out of Hull, it was owned primarily by Dutch and Icelandic interests.
And Mr Collins said that ministers should not allow the interests of a foreign-owned company to “outweigh genuinely British interests”.
“Thankfully the UK is now an independent coastal state and has departed from a scandalous EU practice in which Scottish fish were traded away to the exclusive benefit of a multinational conglomerate,” he said.
“It is imperative that there is no going back on this by ministers.”
Thomas PK Downey
Who exactly traded away these Scottish fish quotas? If these vessels are merely flying under a flag of convenience, can anything be done to put a stop to it? Is it possible to re-instate the Merchant Shipping Act, which was repealed because it was at variance with the Common Fishing Policy? Can we ban large foreign ‘industrial’ fishing vessels from our territorial waters? Can our fishermen have free fishing licences, in the same that the French have been given them? Surely this is discrimination, of the worst kind, against our Fishing Communities?