A former skipper and part-owner of a north-east fishing boat was fined £12,000 yesterday for recording false information on a logsheet in January 2007.
The logsheet showed that about 216cwt, or 11 tonnes, of monkfish had been taken in a single fishing operation lasting one hour - fishery officers disbelieved the figure and Skipper Gatt admitted [...]

The effort reduction measures agreed at the December fisheries council aimed at cutting cod mortality was originally planned to take effect from 1 Feb 09.
However, interim arrangements now look inevitable as the SFF say they have not yet got a clear vision of how effort will be managed this year and at the moment there [...]

ORKNEY fishermen are extremely upset over the new fishing rules in place for 2009.
They feel the concessions made by ministers in order to claim to have achieved their primary objective of avoiding closure of the west of Scotland fisheries have actually resulted in exactly that.
The key issue is the requirement that cod, haddock and whiting [...]

Skipper David McCrossan of the Kirkcudbright vessel Our Heritage was fined £4,000 with £150 costs by the High Bailiff at a special Court in Douglas, Isle Of Man on 27/01/09.
The vessel was fishing within the three-mile limit when she was boarded by Isle of Man Sea Fisheries Officers from their vessel Barrule and was found [...]

The majority of the scallop industry of the UK has withdrawn from a large stakeholders’ symposium on Thursday resulting in its cancellation.
A statement was issued on behalf of the majority of the UK Scallop Dredging Industry, as represented by the Scallop Association, the Southwest Inshore Fishermen’s Association and the South Western Fish Producer Organisation Ltd [...]

Iceland is set to increase its annual catch quota by 30,000 tons from 130,000 tons to 160,000 tons, according to the latest reports from Reykjavik
The news comes somewhat as a shock as only a few months ago the Icelandic Government was insisting that cod quotas would not be increased this year, however the credit crunch [...]

Mike Park, executive chairman of the Scottish White Fish Producers’ Association (SWFPA) said yesterday that he will meet with the Mallaig and North-West Fishermen’s Association in a bid to come to a common position on a call for a new decommissioning scheme.
Mallaig chairman John MacAlister has been backed by his membership to call for a [...]

The Scottish White Fish Producers’ Association is trying to safeguard the interests of a group of 15 vessels which predominantly fish for megrim who are being forced to increase their mesh size from 100mm to 120mm in the name of whitefish selectivity.
Mike Park, the executive chairman of the SWFPA said he believed that more selectivity [...]

Thanks to irresponsible fishing practices and lack of controls 2007 was a record year for cod discard rates in the North Sea. Fishermen landed 24 thousand tonnes of cod in the North Sea and discarded overboard nearly the same amount - 23 thousand tonnes.
Despite the EU commitment last year to reduce discards to 10%,  scientists [...]