SCOTLAND'S fishermen claim a new study proves the recovery of most whitefish stocks.
The Scottish Fishermen Federation (SFF) said the report from the North Atlantic Fisheries College Marine Centre in Shetland shows what the real sacrifices made by fishermen in adopting a wide range of conservation measures has achieved.
The federation said the report, which has collated information from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, provides independent verification of the recovery of stocks.
It reveals that while some whitefish stocks declined prior to the middle of the last decade, almost all have increased since then. In almost all cases, the spawning stock biomass (SSB) measure in the most recent year (2012) was between 50% and at least 100% higher than the average over 2005 to 2007. The one main exception was haddock, for which the upturn started later.
However, the SSB of haddock in 2012 was at least 40% higher than the average over the years 2009 to 2011 in both the North Sea and West of Scotland areas.
The SSF said key findings include: the SSB of North Sea haddock in 2012 is 4.5 times larger than 1991; the North Sea cod stock more than doubled in size between 2006 and 2012; the fishing mortality rate for North Sea cod was lower than in any year since 1966; the plaice stock in the North Sea was larger in 2012 than at any time since at least 1960; and the combined SSB of North Sea cod, haddock, whiting and plaice in 2012 was 40% larger than in the 1990s.
Bertie Armstrong, chief executive of the SFF, said: "At a time when there is much alarmist and sensationalist misinformation about the state of our fish stocks, this report gives the true story of recovering seas."
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