Europe’s fisheries chief Joe Borg has suggested scrapping annual catch quotas – the backbone of the controversial Common Fisheries Policy for a quarter of a century and allowing fishermen to catch as much fish as they want.

The idea to replace catch quotas with an annual allowance of “days at sea” for each vessel was put to MEPs in Brussels.

The idea received a lukewarm response from the Scottish commercial sector, SFF chief executive Bertie Armstrong said: “I think he is trying to impress MEPs that he is prepared to be radical. We welcome that. But, regrettably, complicated problems seldom have a simple solution.”

Mr Borg said fish stocks could be managed by just regulating fishing “effort” – the number of days vessels can spend at sea. Ending quotas would tackle the problem of “discards” – throwing dead fish back into the sea to avoid breaking quota limits.

“Replacing TACs (total allowable catches) and quotas by effort can be a very effective way of reducing the environmental impact of fisheries, and in particular of discards,” said Mr Borg.

SSACN do not believe this is the case, all it means is that practices such as high grading will increase as any opportunity will be taken to maximise revenues within a given time period.

It is intended a vessel owner could decide to either use his “effort” rights himself or to rent them or sell them to another vessel owner, which according to Borg: “…… could in turn help us to achieve the objective of having a smaller fleet commensurate to our resource base.” he said, adding: “For some, this may be radical thinking, but we need to explore every option if we are to make our fisheries policy truly fit for purpose.”

Mr Armstrong said: “If the fisheries commissioner is genuinely suggesting that catch limits should be scrapped, then he would probably be knocked over in the rush at the quayside to accept the offer.

“But I am equally sure that, if radical simplification is being offered, then scrapping of days at sea would be the first choice at the same quayside.

“Every fisherman will agree that there must be an enforced limit to what can be taken from the sea – nobody wants to see overfishing and the consequent downward spiral of commercial suicide.

“However, the consequences of using days at sea as the only control measure will require a great deal more thought.

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