Creel bans at Longay MPA and Clyde cod spawning areas: EIR release

Information requested

1. I am keen to know how many or what percentage of the Clyde creel boats regularly claim on their landings/fish one decelerations to be hauling in excess of 2000 creels a day?
2. I am also keen to know if it wasn't from the landing declarations from where Allan Gibb derived the claim made at both the Raine committee and an online stakeholder meeting on the Clyde cod closure that creel vessels were regularly hauling in excess of 5000 creels a day in the Clyde.
3. Lastly I would like to know who at marine Scotland sanctioned the prohibition on creeling and diving at or immediately after the original longay emergency MPA meeting between marine Scotland and the SSF/SWFPA just prior to meeting myself ( by which time the creel and diving ban had been agreed between marine Scotland and the SFF/SWFPA) which was minuted and subject to a foi from Mercedes vilalba msp.

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.

Response to your request

1. I am keen to know how many or what percentage of the Clyde creel boats regularly claim on their landings/fish one decelerations to be hauling in excess of 2000 creels a day?

In 2022, no individual vessel recorded hauling more than 2,000 pots in any one day in the Clyde cod area. We have included all creel vessels recorded as fishing in the statistics rectangle 39E4 as an approximation for those fishing in the Clyde cod area. The Firth of Clyde also includes parts of other
rectangles including 39E5, 40E4 and 40E5. The average number of pots hauled daily by all Scottish vessels in 39E4 in 2022 was 315 and the maximum in any one day in 2022 reported was 2036. However, creel fishing didn’t take place every day, there were no pots hauled on 150 days.

2. I am also keen to know if it wasn't from the landing declarations from where Allan Gibb derived the claim made at both the Raine committee and an online stakeholder meeting on the Clyde cod closure that creel vessels were regularly hauling in excess of 5000 creels a day in the Clyde.

The reference made by Allan Gibb to 5,000 creels was taken from an article in the Campbeltown Courier on 21 January 2022. In this article it stated “We fish a lot of creels to make it viable,” Hughie said. “Between our boats, we’ll have between 4,000 and 5,000 creels, and where are we going to put them?” Quote from Hughie McAllister in the Campbeltown Courier 21 Jan 2022. The article can be found here: PressReader.com - Digital Newspaper & Magazine Subscriptions

The comment made by Allan Gibb is copied below and can be found at the link below in the Official Report from the RAINE meeting.

Raine Committee, 9th March 2022, Allan Gibb – “One of the correspondents claimed that, in his estimate, there were between 4,000 and 5,000 creels in that area. If 4,000 to 5,000 creels are being hauled up and shot down every day, that will clearly generate disturbance, and the disturbance was the
key feature of the scientific rationale behind taking the closure for all methods.”

Meeting of the Parliament: RAINE/09/03/2022 | Scottish Parliament Website

3. Lastly I would like to know who at marine Scotland sanctioned the prohibition on creeling and diving at or immediately after the original longay emergency MPA meeting between marine Scotland and the SSF/SWFPA just prior to meeting myself ( by which time the creel and diving ban had been agreed between marine Scotland and the SFF/SWFPA) which was minuted and subject to a foi from Mercedes vilalba msp. [Mercedes Villalba MSP]

Before answering the question, we would like to clarify that:

• “Marine Scotland” is now known as the “Marine Directorate.” This is in order to align with the naming convention of other Scottish Government Directorates.
• We were unable to identify an FOI (Freedom of Information) request from Mercedes Villalba, MSP, as described above. However, the minutes tweeted by Mercedes Villalba MSP had been published on the Scottish Government website after the meetings took place in 2021 and can be found here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/red-rocks-and-longay-urgent-mpa-minutes-ofstakeholder-meetings/
• The link provided above takes you to all the published meeting minutes with stakeholders and shows that Scottish Government Marine Directorate (SGMD), formerly Marine Scotland, officials met with the Scottish Creel Fishermen's Federation (SCFF) prior to meeting with Scottish Fishermen’s Federation (SFF) and the Scottish White Fish Producers Association (SWFPA) not vice versa as stated in the request.

In the meeting with SCFF, SGMD officials stated the meeting was to introduce possible measures and highlighted that as NatureScot had advised this was a site of national importance and further surveys were needed to better understand the distribution of the flapper skate eggs, Ministers were likely to take a precautionary approach to management.

In the meeting with SFF and SWFPA it was stated by SGMD officials that the site was of national importance and the Urgent MPA was under consideration subject to ministerial approval and the order (Marine Conservation Order) was likely to cover mobile and static gear.

No decision was taken by officials prior to meeting with any stakeholders on the prohibition on creeling with the final decision being made by Ministers prior to designating the Urgent MPA in March 2021.

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.