More fishy business

A product called Bactocell has been approved for tackling deformities in farmed fish, a problem that has been costing the industry up to €20-25M per year. Be thankful we don’t see the bones that were in our farmed fish. Or perhaps we should.

EU taxpayers who took part in an EU-wide survey conducted by YouGov said they wanted proper fleet assessments to be carried out before subsidies were granted. 68% thought subsidies shouldn’t be given to fishing fleets at all, but should be put toward stock maintaining and rebuilding. But –

Overfishing will continue. At last week’s EU Fisheries Council, ministers agreed to continue subsidies that increase fishing capacity and thus contribute to overfishing.

Lerwick fish landings plummet

Though a higher tonnage of vessels than ever was handled at Lerwick Harbour in the first 9 months of the year, fish landings have been down 18% on volume and 42% on value. This is odd, since the overall tonnage of vessels handled at Lerwick increased by 10% on the same period. Of this tonnage, slightly fewer vessels have been fishing trawlers, but not enough to explain a so drastically reduced catch volume.

Victor Sandison, Deputy Chief Executive, Lerwick Port Authority, said the harbour had been busy with numerous ‘oil-related arrivals’ and increased cargo shipping. Total ferry passengers carried had decreased by 5.4%, though there were more cruise passengers.

Nobody has asked if the drop in landings may be due to a drop in the number of fish. Odd, that.