The UK Government is being urged to ignore a “concerted campaign” to deprive Scottish fishers of quota in favour of a huge, foreign-owned freezer trawler operating out of a British port.
Scottish Pelagic Fishermen’s Association chief executive Ian Gatt and Shetland Fishermen’s Association executive officer Simon Collins said lobbying by the vessel’s owner, East Yorkshire-based UK Fisheries, to secure more fish “must be resisted”.
The 266ft trawler, Kirkella, fishes hundreds of miles away from UK shores – around the Arctic Sea.
With 30 crew and automated processing, the first fish reach the on-board freezers 40 minutes after being caught
Kirkella’s catch is said to make up about one-twelfth of the cod and haddock supplied to UK fish and chip shops.
As part of complicated quota swaps, the vessel has previously bulked out its quota of Barents Sea cod – for which Scottish fishers end up sacrificing blue whiting and saithe.
Mr Gatt said: “This vessel operates out of Hull, but is owned primarily by Dutch and Icelandic interests, is largely operated by a non-UK crew and processes its catch on board.
“In 2022 the owners already have 6,550 tonnes of Svalbard cod quota and an associated 14% bycatch, plus 500t of Barents Sea cod quota.
“To put that in perspective, the entire UK fleet has a cod quota this year of 5,934t, of which the Scottish fleet has 3,500t.
“And yet they want even more from the Barents Sea, paid for with Scottish quotas.”
‘Scandalous’ EU practice
Mr Collins added: “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.
“It is imperative there is no going back on this by ministers. In current and future discussions we must not get to the point where the interests of a foreign-owned company outweigh genuinely British interests.”
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