Why There is Still a Future for Fishers in Scotland
It is no secret that the last couple of decades have not been good for Scottish fishermen. Years of over fishing resulted in a complete collapse of the industry. There is however good news as things are starting to turn around. The result is that there is still a future for fishermen in Scotland as the industry should now be sustainable for years to come.
The main reason that there is still a future for fishers in Scotland is that there has been a concerted effort made to keep the industry sustainable. This is something the requires the cooperation of not only the government and the fishermen but also of the neighbouring countries that also fish in the area, Norway being the most notable. After many years of arguing about what to do about declining fish stocks action has been finally been taken and quotas agreed to. The result is that we are starting to see an increase in the number of fish in the area.
The area where this cooperation has most obviously paid off is when it comes to haddock stocks. A few years ago the amount of haddock that was believed to available to fish was very low and very low quotas had to be implemented. This has proven to be successful and the amount of haddock that is being caught has been increased. A similar plan is currently being implemented with cod which will hopefully bring those stocks back up to a sustainable level. It will probably take a couple of years yet before this happens but it does look promising for the future.
One of the other reasons that there is a bright future for fishermen in Scotland is that new species of fish are now being caught. An example of this is the monkfish which in the past tended to be ignored because there was no market for it. This has started to change in recent years as the quotas on the fish that were traditionally caught have reduced the availability of it. The result is that people are starting to eat fish species that they didn't eat in the past. This has proved to be good news for fishermen as the monkfish is now the third most important species in terms of the value of the catch for Scottish fishermen.
The last reason that the future is bright for Scottish fishermen is that the problems that they have faced with regards to running out of fish have been faced by most other countries with large fishing industries. The result is that it has reduced the amount of fish that is available and increased the price. In addition few other countries have addressed their fisheries issues as effectively which should put Scotland in a strong position amongst the world's major fishing areas.