Condensed from an article on forargyll.com

3,500 tonnes – that is the minimum estimate of fish thrown back into the Clyde as ‘by-catch’ and ‘discards’.

A report was disseminated at the AGM of Community of Arran Seabed Trust (COAST) which included appalling figures on the destruction of young fish caught in prawn nets and thrown back as unwanted. They are from a 2007 survey of prawn trawling in the Clyde undertaken by the industry itself.

They figures reveal that the numbers of juvenile fish destroyed as bycatch in a 10 month period was as follows:

• 292,533 Hake
• 641,321 Cod
• 1.25 million Plaice
• 5.8 million Haddock
• 11 million Whiting
• 12.3 million other fish species

All of this is occurring within the Six Mile Scottish Limit.

All of it is under the control of the Scottish Government.

None of these problems are due to the Common Fishery Policy.

None of the problems are being addressed in the pending Marine (Scotland) Bill.

This is a total of 31,329,115 dead juvenile fish weighing on average just 63 grams (2 ounces).

In addition, 40 million crustaceans were also destroyed.

They are – were – the future.

This information demolishes any contention by the industry that stocks are being encouraged to regenerate.

[SSACN – It also supports the reported assertion by one of the commercial sector’s key figures that they do not wish to see any whitefish regeneration as it would impact the nephrops sector.]

Related posts:

1. The Future of Scotland’s Seas