Fishermen screwed again

What an outrage yesterday, as the Governments pile more red tape on top of an unworkable structure in the name of the environment.

The bureaucrats have decide that all fishing boats must comply with the Port Waste Reception Facilities legislation. In other words, all vessels of every size must account for all the waste they produce s if they were a liner or a ferry. The sheer impracticality of it all is amazing, and the NGOs can all see that it will lead to the fishermen throwing waste overboard, rather than try to record the creation and disposal of every single item.

Failure to comply and keep proper records can result in huge fines, so it is highly likely that the fishing boats will simply record in arrears to balance the books, and get rid of the rest.

Thankfully, the Netherlands see this problem and add the caveat “if practical”, and then bind the other countries into funding a waste management scheme if the PWRF legislation doesn’t work – as it won’t. Once again, the UK is keep to pile the red tape up, and only under pressure does it relent and support a voluntary scheme as an option; although I expect to see the compulsory scheme implemented with undue haste and then abandoned.

In Stornoway we have set up a free collection service for marine waste, encouraging the fishermen to put debris from the trawls into skips, and this is definitely the way forward, not compulsion.