Borders MP Michael Moore has called on the Government to ensure that the economic interests of coastal communities in the Borders are taken into account during discussions on reform to the rules governing the UK fishing industry.

Questioning UK Fisheries Minister Huw Irranca-Davies MP during an annual debate on fisheries in the House of Commons, Mr Moore pressed him to recognise the importance of a financially sustainable fisheries sector to the future of many small communities in Berwickshire.

In response, Mr Irranca-Davies accepted that there is a need for greater discussion of how the long-term future of fishing in Scotland can best be secured, suggesting that fishermen in Berwickshire should be given greater control over production and the supply chain to boost their income.

Commenting, Mr Moore said:

‘In recent years, our local fishing industry has struggled to remain viable in the face of poorly designed but rigorously implemented and enforced rules that protect neither the economic nor the environmental well-being of the Berwickshire coastline.

‘Although the Minister’s recognition that more thought needs to be put into how legislative changes will affect the prosperity of fishing communities in the Borders is welcome, his words will be meaningless unless they now translate into real action to help fishermen in Berwickshire and their families.’

Notes:

Further details of the exchange between Mr Moore and Huw Irranca-Davies MP are below:

Mr Moore: The Minister has spoken of the sustainability of smaller fishing communities. I represent many such communities in Berwickshire. Does the Minister accept that, as well as wishing to unite the fishing and marine environments, we must not lost sight of the need for financial sustainability for those communities?

Mr Irranca-Davies: …As we implement common fisheries policy reform, we need to engage in a frank discussion throughout the devolved areas about how we can deliver a prosperous future – let us scrap the word ‘sustainable’ for the moment – for widely variegated coastal communities that have different types of vessels and experience different aspects of isolation and remoteness. I think that part of the solution is not protectionism per se, but the willingness of Ministers to stand up and say how vessels and fisheries can be made more profitable, how they can produce better harvests, and how fishermen can own production from the point at which the fish are landed to the point of marketing….

…Some of the fisheries in the constituencies of the hon. Gentleman and others are high-quality mixed fisheries which should not be selling at bog-standard prices – not that there is such a thing – to whoever comes in. There should be a much cleverer way of owning the profits resulting from that supply chain.