Electrofishing trial catch weight and diver statistics: EIR release

Information requested

• During and since the start of the electrofishing trial in 2018, how many vessels has had the catch weighed on their return to port using official Marine Scotland calibrated Scales?
• During and since the start of the electrofishing trial in 2018 how many divers are on the approved Marine Scotland diver list?

Response

As the information you have requested is ‘environmental information’ for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.

This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.

The answers to your questions are as follows,

• During and since the start of the electrofishing trial in 2018, how many vessels has had the catch weighed on their return to port using official Marine Scotland calibrated Scales ?

During and since the start of the electrofishing trial in 2018, 19 vessels authorised to participate in the trial have had their catches weighed on Marine Scotland scales. It is important to note that Marine Scotland do not calibrate scales, this service is provided by an external company.

• During and since the start of the electrofishing trial in 2018 how many divers are on the approved Marine Scotland diver list?

At the date of this information request, there was a total of 148 divers authorised by Marine Scotland to participate in the electrofishing for razor clams scientific trial. 

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.