Sea fisheries - future catching policy: consultation analysis

10. Additional comments (Q23)

Q23. Additional comments

Overview

10.1. A total of 183 respondents (145 individuals and 38 organisations) provided additional comments on the Future Catching Policy.

Themes

Within the additional comments the following themes were raised:

• That the industry is feeling increasingly squeezed with rapid changes in Marine Protected Areas and that fisheries must be taken into account in marine planning.
• A group of responses called for the inclusion of spatial measures to limit or ban bottom-trawling and dredging in Scotland's inshore waters. These groups of responses often tended to make this point throughout the consultation using similar language.
• A call for more research and regulation for non-UK vessels in Scottish waters.
• That the science around issues referred to in the consultation document needs to be improved.
• The perceived need for more localised quota management.
• Scientists and fishers need to work together in order to address issues in a workable way.
• Some felt that the plans did not go far enough on sustainability and environmental damage and that they did not represent a plan to recover the health of seas and fish populations.
• A few respondents stated that they felt the proposals set out in the consultation document represented a backwards step in fishery management.
• That Crown Dependencies should be considered where appropriate particularly in relation to scallop fisheries.
• Some concepts in the proposal lacked precise definitions.
• Better future stock assessment was required.