Spurdog
No, I had no idea what a spurdog was until I saw this article in FishUpdate.com and found out that it is the Spotted Dogfish, which shoals in the Minch and is caught as a by-catch.And then tossed overboard, as it cannot exceed 5% of the landing.
Derogations in Wales, but not in Scotland?
No common sense approach to fisheries management allowing a annual TAC computation for a fish that is present only part of the year?
Duncan MacInnes is absolutely correct:
He said that the proposals emerging from the EC were extremely worrying, but they did nothing for stock conservation. "They introduce rules to stop by-catch, and prevent landings, yet spurdog goes around in large shoals at certain times of the year for around three or four months and they don't obey strict rules. The fishermen know that they're there and so do the scientists and they will get caught and they will have to be discarded dead. That doesn't help the stock and it does nothing to help the income of fishermen who are already hard-pressed by rising fuel prices. It should be lawful to land everything for which there is a quota"Will sanity prevail? Will the Scottish Government see sense?
(Declaration of interest: the firm acts for fishermen)
2 comments:
Glad you seem to be back with us Angus - it was like losing a kidney not having you running the blog
A spurdog is a completely different species to the spotted dogs of which there are two commonly found in Scottish waters,
1. Lesser Spotted
2. Greater Spotted or Bull Huss
The spurdog is distinguished by the two spines in front of the dorsal fins, which can cause severe injury to an unsuspecting
fisherman.
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