New fishing rules for the United Kingdom’s king scallop sector that were due to come into force this week have been postponed until 15 January.
The restrictions were proposed amid concerns about the accuracy of catch reporting. Under the plan, all scalloping boats would need to report to an Isle of Man (IOM) port for possible inspection of catches. But with the Scottish government claiming the move would "breach an established fisheries agreement" and could put hundreds of jobs at risk, the IOM government agreed to the delay to allow for further discussions.
According to the IOM government, the king scallop industry is worth GBP 12 million (USD 16.2 million, EUR 13.6 million) to the island's economy.
Last year, a series of catch limits were introduced to avoid unsustainable fishing effort in the Manx territorial waters, which extend 12 miles from the island's coast. These measures included an overnight fishing curfew, a 50 percent cut in licenses and the introduction of boat size restrictions.
Scotland’s Rural Economy Secretary Fergus Ewing last week welcomed the halt to these measures, saying the Scottish government understood IOM’s concerns over possible misreporting and, if substantiated, it would wish to see proportionate control measures introduced.
However, he also said that he wanted to avoid such restrictive measures if at all possible as they risk damaging crews carrying out their legitimate fishing activities to what is a very important fishery worth in excess of GBP 3 million (USD 4.1 million, EUR 3.4 million) per annum to Scotland.
Ewing will be speaking with the IOM’s fisheries Minister this week to ascertain the next steps.
