Spurdog ban

Island trawlers may soon be able to land spurdog which they are currently legally forced to throw back into the sea.

Landing spurdog - a small species of shark generally considered to be at low levels - was banned in 2012.

Patches of these fish are encountered occasionally

and are hard to avoid. Fishermen don't want to catch them because their spines - or spurs - entangle the nets.

But they can get mixed up with prawns in a haul and are an incidental by-catch for local boats.

Though there is a good market for them - as well as the meat, the fins are used for shark fin soup - fishermen have to discard them back into the sea.

Island fishermen say the majority of the species caught in the Minch are predominantly small male fish and a controlled fishery avoiding breeding females would not damage overall stocks.

Hopes of lifting spurdog ban

27 November 2015

Ongoing formal research over the last two winters, spearheaded by Islander Shellfish and Barratlantic, substantiates the fishing industry's view.

Now fisheries minister Richard Lochhead has told MP Angus Macneil the EC will be asked to allow a genuine by-catch to be landed.

A proposal to argue for a small quota is being prepared for December.

Angus MacNeil said: “I'm delighted there is at last an emerging possibility of a genuine by-catch being considered.

"Credit for this progress must in large part go to Islander Shellfish and Barratlantic for initiating and running the spurdog project used to inform these proposals."

Cllr Donald Manford who helped coordinate the project commented: “While it pleasing to see our project contributed to information on spurdog stock levels, a larger more comprehensive project would be able to further strengthen the case for a by-catch TAC (quota)."