Ling research for Shetland fishers. With quota uplifts for key species such as cod, haddock, whiting and saithe for 2024, the immediate prospects for the Shetland whitefish sector look better for the year ahead, says Sheila Keith, executive officer of the Shetland Fishermen’s Association (SFA), although challenges lie ahead.
New methodology for cod advice resulted in a revised framework recognising three different sub-stocks of cod, resulting in a benchmark being set, which in turn ensured northern shelf cod received a 15% quota hike for 2024 based on the scientific assessment.
Sheila Keith told Fish Focus:
“This was good news and it does illustrate how important it is to ensure sound science when making assessments and delivering management advice.”
Ling, however, is one species where scientific knowledge is sparse. It is currently regarded as a data-poor category 3 stock, and the advice for 2024 was for a 12% cut, despite fishermen believing the stock to be in a good state, based on their catches.
One of the problems this creates is that ling becomes a ‘choke species’ for boats operating in a mixed fishery, meaning fishing operations may have to cease due to their quota limit for ling being breached, despite a vessel still having plenty of quota for other species.
To overcome this, and to better understand the ling stock in a bid to develop accurate scientific advice, Shetland fishermen are participating in the innovative Fishing Industry Science Partnership led by Shetland UHI, and partnered by the Shetland Fish Producers’ Organisation, and the Scottish Fishermen’s Organisation.
This project includes the utilisation of innovative BATmap technology, which is a bespoke software system currently in use off the west coast of Scotland to record hauls of cod in real time. If catches are higher than an agreed threshold, an automatic alert is triggered informing other participating vessels to avoid these areas.
It is envisaged that this new ling research project undertaken in Shetland, and which runs until March 2025, will improve the evidence base and knowledge of the stock, and ultimately lead to better management.
For haddock, the stock is in robust health with Shetland fishermen not even catching their full allocation last year. Sheila Keith says:
“The healthy state of the haddock stock is really encouraging, but because boats are catching a lot of smaller sized haddock, we need to look at ways of ensuring our fishermen get better value from their catches, recognising that this is a Scottish wide issue that involves restricted processing capabilities due to labour shortages.”
With the general picture of healthy stocks around Shetland, one area where the Shetland Fishermen’s Association will certainly be active this year is combating the negative narrative continually espoused by some environmental NGOs.
“We have this constant barrage of mistruths from well-funded environmental NGOs directed at our fishing industry and the communities they support,” says Sheila Keith. “It is important that we expose this misinformation from these NGOs with an anti-fishing agenda to ensure the public fully understand the true situation and the importance of fish and shellfish as a sustainable food resource.”
Another key area of concern are the fishing operations of foreign long-liners and gillnetters working off Shetland, which SFA members maintain don’t appear to be scrutinised by enforcement authorities to the same degree as local boats. SFA members are being kept from their traditional fishing grounds, often by aggressive tactics, evidenced by recent incidences of seamanship malpractice by these vessels, where local trawlers have come under risk from collision.
“We are also extremely concerned about the masses of plastic mesh these boats either dump or lose at sea, and the harmful impact this has on the ecosystem.”