Tarbert fisherman, Kenny MacNab, recently gave a presentation on the Clyde Fishery from 1950 until the present day to Scottish Ministers – including Fisheries Secretary, Richard Lochhead, the Scottish Conservative Environment & Fisheries Spokesman, Jamie McGrigor MSP, other MSPs and government staff.
Mr MacNab is a past chairman of the Clyde Fishermen’s Association. His presentation was described as fascinating and informative – setting out some of the reasons for the decline in various demersal fish stocks in the Clyde since the 1950s, the current dependence on the prawn fishery which is so important to processors and the industry’s concerns for the future.
In particular, concerns were voiced about the accuracy and validity of some of the scientific data used to justify fishing policies and restrictions in the Clyde area – alongside concerns as to how such data is collected.
After attending the presentation, Jamie went on to lodge a parliamentary motion, highlighting his constituent’s presentation. In the motion [text given at the foot of this article] Jamie McGrigor has called for the Scottish Government, Marine Scotland and their scientists to work closely with the fishermen and their representatives in the Clyde area – to ensure the scientific evidence used to determine fishing policy is as robust is possible.
Jamie says: ‘Kenny MacNab is to be congratulated on his informed and interesting presentation.
‘I consider it is vital that the Scottish Government, Marine Scotland and their scientists at all levels work closely with local fishermen and representatives of the Clyde Fishermen’s Association, so that their practical knowledge can combine with scientific evidence to make that evidence as reliable as possible in the interests of achieving sustainable fisheries and fishing communities in the Clyde.’
On the subject of fishing in Loch Fyne, we recently published an article on an article in The Observer which had used Argyll waters as the subject of a focus on the contradictions and conflicts in Scottish fishing practices.
The source article on which we reported had looked at the serious environmental damage caused by traditional scallop dredges, at a pair of fishermen on Mull diving for hand caught scallops – and at dredger and creel fishing for prawns and other shellfish in Loch Fyne.
This focused on the so-called ‘Prawn Wars’ – a conflicted situation between trawlers coming up the loch to the waters in the vicinity of Furnace and Minard and local creel fishermen, with Alistair Sinclair interviewed by The Observer’s reporter as a leading figure in the Sustainable Inshore Fisheries Trust and as someone who has regularly reported acts of expensive vandalism against his creels and other equipment by incoming trawlers.
The Observer report said that Mr Sinclair had also been personally targeted by a trawler skipper in a Facebook page, accusing him of selling drugs to school children. The trawler skipper was apparently prosecuted and fined in January this year.
Following our report o the Observer article, we were contacted by some upset fishermen who alleged that the Observer story – on a topic which has been aired before – was one sided and that the trawlermen’s side of it had not been investigated.
As with all such confrontations, it takes two.
The essence of the counter story is that the reality in the Furnace Prawn Wars is less about confrontations engineered by outsiders than it is about local protection and more about the strategy of frightening off other operators from fishing the area.
It certainly seems to be far from a one-sided tale.
These informants gave us their names and the names of their boats but, fearful of retribution, they were anxious not to be named.
They too spoke of false allegations against them, with early morning arrivals of local police at their homes, demanding statements in response to allegations of having been seen damaging the creels of Furnace fishermen. They were able to show conclusively that neither they nor their boats were anywhere near the area on the day they were alleged to have been behaving in this fashion.
Other local fishermen, who also do not want to be named, have told of being charged with damaging creels when they had not done so.
They remain offended and retain the intimidation of that visit by police for something they had not done.
They deny that they ravage stocks with bycatch – pointing to their modern gear with nets of a dimension that makes this all but impossible.
They talked of an instance a few years ago where creels were deliberately shot across the tow of one of their boats when she was trawling – almost taking her ashore.
They spoke of boats being boarded; of alleged partiality in MCA officers; of the fact that their are seven creel boats in Tarbert alongside the trawler fleet and that there is no trouble there between the two.
This would indicate that there is a territorial sense governing the confrontations; something of an attitude of ‘these are our waters’, of activity to keep other boats at a distance.
This has worked. Some if not all Tarbert trawlers evidently now give Furnace a wide berth.
The people who made contact with us talked passionately about the ruination of the Clyde fishery, saying that the magical phenomenon of phosphorescence in the water – which is caused by the presence of the plankton that are the engine ofa fishery – is no longer seen.
They mention the basking sharks that used to come up the loch and don’t do so these days – because there’s no feeding to be had.
By all accounts, they’ve all gone to Tiree, with those waters now a ‘hot spot’ and a breeding ground for the species.
Text of McGrigor parliamentary motion on MacNab presentation
Jamie McGrigor, Conservative, Highlands & Islands.
The Clyde Fishery
That the Parliament notes that on Thursday 17th of January Mr Kenneth MacNab of Tarbert in Argyll & Bute, past chairman of the Clyde Fishermen’s Association, gave a presentation in Committee Room 5 about the history of the Clyde Fishery from 1950 until the present day; notes that the presentation was attended by the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs & the Environment Richard Lochhead MSP, who described Mr MacNab’s knowledge as ‘invaluable’, as well as other MSPs, MSP staff, Scottish Government officials and senior officers of Marine Scotland; is further aware that Mr MacNab drew on his first-hand experience of fishing the Clyde waters for over 40 years and set out a range of concerns about the future of the Clyde fishing sector; and considers that it is vital that the Scottish Government, Marine Scotland and their scientists at all levels work closely with local fishermen and representatives of the Clyde Fishermen’s Association so that their practical knowledge can combine with scientific evidence to make that evidence as reliable as possible in the interests of achieving sustainable fisheries and fishing communities in the Clyde estuary and elsewhere on the west coast.