Alistair Sinclair, national co-ordinator of the Scottish Creel Fishermen’s Federation (SCFF) commented that the body is acting “after years of frustration” in dealings with both Holyrood and its Marine Scotland agency.

The SCFF has lodged a judicial review of the decision to refuse an application for a fisheries pilot scheme in the Inner Sound of Skye, which separates that island, Raasay and Scalpay from the Ross-shire coast. They say, the proposed Skye Pilot was designed to provide evidence on the environmental and economic benefits of creeling as opposed to trawling in Scotland’s important inshore Nephrops fishery and that this legal challenge highlights an important concern about the way our inshore fisheries are managed by Marine Scotland and an apparent gap between policy and practice.

The North West Responsible Fishermen’s Association (NWRFA) had proposed a trial there aimed at establishing the environmental and economic benefits of a “creel only” zone in the area, home to the valuable Nephrops fishery. The SCFF says the sector “wields too much influence with Marine Scotland” and that the country’s fisheries are managed in its favour.

In their briefing note the SCFF write “We have an uncontroversial definition of fisheries management: “the application by a public authority of fisheries management measures in support of inshore fisheries policy objectives and the public interest”. The broader question needing urgent examination is whether Marine Scotland, in managing our inshore fisheries, meets this definition both in the case of the Inner Sound Pilot Programme and more generally.

Click here to read more