Appeal lodged against creel fishing ruling

Creel fishermen won a judicial review last month

The Scottish government has lodged an appeal against a ruling requiring it to reconsider the way fisheries should be managed in the seas off Skye.

The Scottish Creel Fishermen's Federation (SCFF) wants a pilot project to be run which would see no trawling and dredging in some inshore areas.

The SCFF went to the Court of Session after the Scottish government turned down the proposal.

The government has now appealed against the judicial review the SCFF won.

Robert Younger, of legal organisation Fish Legal, which won the case for the SCFF, said it appeared the Scottish government was "desperate" to avoid the pilot scheme.

The Scottish government said it was "very much focused" on supporting the fishing industry, adding that a lot had happened since the start of the case in May last year.

Lost gear

Last month, the Court of Session ruled that the creel fishermen's proposal was turned down by ministers solely because of the strength of opposition.

The judge, Lady Poole, said the SCFF's proposal - to separate mobile and static fishing in Skye's Inner Sound as part of a trial - had not been fairly considered before being rejected.

Mobile fishing, through trawling and dredging, can often come into conflict with static methods.

Creel fishermen - who lay their pots on the seabed before returning days later to empty them - say thousands of pounds worth of gear can be lost when a fishing boat drags its nets through an area.

The proposal was to designate some areas of the Inner Sound to static fishing while others could be used by the mobile fleet.

The Scottish government said it was focused on supporting the fishing industry

A consultation, launched in 2017, invited fisheries management proposals for the seas around Scotland which would be judged against five criteria, including national and international obligations and the impact on quotas.

But Lady Poole ruled that the SCFF proposal for the Inner Sound was not judged on these criteria but simply on the strength of opposition.

Lawyers for the SCFF told Lady Poole that Scottish government directorate Marine Scotland acted unreasonably when it rejected its plan.

The organisation claimed objections from trawler operators had outweighed "published criteria for assessing pilot proposals set out in the government's own guidance".

SCFF lawyers claimed the Scottish government's guidance stated that local community groups could put forward a pilot proposal which could be approved.

They said approval could be granted if such schemes provided firm proof that management of fishing stocks could be maintained and improved.

'Wider matters'

The Scottish government confirmed that an appeal had been lodged.

A spokeswoman said: "Given this is a live legal matter it would not be appropriate to comment further on the case.

"This case focused on the assessment of a proposal for the Inner Sound of Skye by some creel fishermen, and is not related to wider inshore fisheries management matters. A lot has happened since the case was lodged in May 2020.

"The Scottish government has been very much focused on supporting the fishing industry through the impacts of Covid-19 and EU Exit."

The spokeswoman said that in December 2020 the Scottish government also published its Scotland's Future Fisheries Management strategy setting policy initiatives for the next 10 years, including for inshore fisheries.