Starry Smooth-hound or Common Smooth-hound?
Dr Farrell discusses some identification issues surrounding smooth-hound species in north-east Atlantic waters and the work he has carried out in an attempt to resolve these issues. Species Identification and Biology The first and main question that always seems to arise when talking about smooth-hounds is “what species is it?” There are many species of [...]
Biology and Management of Starry Smooth-hound in the NE Atlantic
In this article, Dr Farrell discusses the progression of his research on starry smooth-hound (after clearing up the identification confusion!) and the implications his research might have on future management of smooth-hound populations in the north-east Atlantic. Current Fishery and Management Resolving the identification issues of Northeast Atlantic smooth-hounds greatly simplified the next part of [...]
Scottish Conservative MEP Struan Stevenson will be the keynote speaker at a town hall meeting in St Andrews this Thursday which is set to bring together opposition to wind farm developments from throughout Scotland. Struan Stevenson, who is Vice-President of the European Parliament’s Fisheries Committee, will explain that the destructive impact of off-shore turbine developments [...]
Over the past few years SSACN has achieved some terrific results – the economic study, presentations in Holyrood, contributing to marine management policy and establishing the SSTP to name just a few and we are now involved in many areas and matters which we could not have conceived of when we first started. This is [...]
Westminster MPs have refused to ban the controversial practice of discarding surplus fish back into the sea, a practice which results in about 1 Million tonnes of fish being thrown back each year in the North Sea alone. Fishermen should be allowed to continue discarding edible fish at sea, despite public pressure to stop the [...]
Fisheries Minister welcomes penalties
17 Scottish skippers and one processing plant were fined a total of £960,000 in the High Court for offences relating to undeclared fish landings between 2002 and 2005 in contravention of sea fishing legislation. Speaking after the court hearings, Lindsey Miller, Head of the Serious and Organised Crime Division, said: “Organised crime takes many forms. [...]
Scottish MPA decision making process
As part of the Scottish MPA project, third parties were invited to make suggestions for MPAs: anyone, from an individual person to an organisation or industry sector, could make a submission for Marine Scotland/SNH/JNCC to assess against a set of stringent selection guidelines. Third parties were invited to submit proposals for either a Nature Conservation [...]
Scottish stocks data deficient
More than half of the main species landed by Scottish whitefish vessels come from stocks that are ‘data deficient’, according to a review carried out by the NAFC Marine Centre. Data-deficient fish stocks are those for which the data needed to carry out a scientific assessment are not available. The review found that of the [...]
Nofima is quadrupling the number of different fish species you can check with the iPhone app “How fresh is your fish?”. You can now use the app, which enables you to evaluate how fresh fish is, to check pollock, haddock, herring, turbot, sole, brill, redfish, deep-water shrimps, fjord shrimps and peeled shrimps. The first version [...]
We crashed the stocks says fisheries leader
From the Daily Telegraph Mike Park was 21 when he skippered his first fishing boat. Back then, in the early 1980s, he recalls, Scottish fishermen landed 120,000 tons of cod a year. Now the catch has slumped to just 15,000 tons. So far, so familiar: the world’s oceans are full of collapsed, over-exploited fisheries. But [...]
SSACN’s Give Fish A Chance (GFAC) initiative reflects the fact that many anglers are keen to do what they can to ensure the minimal impact to the environment and to the fish themselves.
Fish sustainably, only take fish for the table which have had a chance to reproduce and have respect for those you do catch.
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UK Initial Assessment and proposals for Good Environmental Status
Consultation Start: 27 March 2012 – Consultation End: 18 June 2012 This is a joint consultation between Defra, the Northern Ireland Executive, the Scottish Government and the Welsh Government and on the implementation of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). The Directive requires Member States to take measures to achieve or maintain Good Environmental Status [...]
Argyll and the Isles coast and countryside trust
Argyll and Bute Council have formed a partnership steering group with Scottish Natural Heritage, Forestry Commission Scotland, ABSEN, and Argyll & Bute Local Services Initiative to look at the possibility of establishing a new independent trust. The proposed aim of the Trust would be to: ‘work together to sustainably maintain, enhance and promote the coast [...]
Marine Strategy Framework Directive Consultation Event
Defra, the Northern Ireland Executive, the Scottish Government and the Welsh Government are planning to launch a joint consultation on the implementation of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) on 27 March 2012. You will be able to find the consultation documents on the Defra web site http://www.defra.gov.uk/consult/open/ Defra will be hosting a stakeholder event [...]
Argyll & Bute – Coastal Development Strategy
Argyll and Bute Council are preparing a Coastal Development Strategy as part of their new Local Development Plan. One of the key sectors that will be considered in the Strategy is coastal tourism & recreation and therefore the Council is seeking information and views to ensure a relevant, effective and up to date strategy is [...]
EGPS & Renewable Energy Routemap consultations
The Scottish Government has published a Revised Draft Electricity Generation Policy Statement (EGPS) and a draft Renewable Energy Routemap. These draft policies together set out Scottish Government policy for low carbon energy generation. Both policies are now open for public consultation which ends 4 June 2012. A Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) under the Environmental Assessment [...]
Marine Social and Economic Data Project 2012
Robust and current data is needed urgently in the marine environment where policy makers are dealing with a number of new legislative requirements such as the Marine Strategy Framework Directive, the development of Marine Spatial Plans and the designation of new Marine Protected Areas. In response to this, EMU Limited in collaboration with the Marine [...]
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