Argyllshire and Dunoon News

FISHING association leaders have hit out at a report published by York University this week which claims that the Clyde has become “an ecosystem in meltdown.”

Once famed for its cod,  halibut and large catches of herring, the Firth of Clyde - which stretches from Loch Fyne to the Mull of Kintyre –  is now, according to a professor of marine biology, “nearing the end point.”

Professor Callum Roberts of York University, along with PhD researcher Ruth Thurstan, have angered Scottish fishing leaders with their claims that traditional catches have all but died out because of commercial overfishing and that Nephrops (Langoustine), which has now replaced traditional species as the major Clyde catch, are dying out.
After examining the history of the Clyde fishery, the report says: “Many species are at an all time low level, even though there are few, if any, directed fisheries in the Clyde as almost all Clyde-based mobile fisheries now fish almost exclusively for Nephrops. The only way these declines can be halted is if Nephrops fisheries are reduced and restricted to certain areas.”
The report concludes: “Current management measures are failing to halt declines of these stocks.”

However. Bertie Armstrong, Chief Executive of the Scottish Fishermen’s  Federation, poured scorn on the report, describing it as tedious and unworthy. He told the Standard: “This report and the publicity surrounding it represents a superficial coverage of the situation in the west of Scotland, aimed, it would appear, at first attracting attention by the use of lurid headlines. Further reading and consultation with proper fisheries scientists (Mr Roberts is an environmentalist, not a subject matter expert) shows that the argument deployed is flawed - it cherry-picks facts to fit a prejudice rather than prove a point. 
“There is an immediately obvious defect in the assessment of the Clyde, which is to conclude that reduced landings reflect a disaster.  In fact, reduced landings reflect a practical application of management measures to improve the stocks. 
“No one would claim that there are not problems to address, but that is exactly what is happening. 
“This is a tedious and unworthy piece of work.”

Two Dunoon sea-anglers we spoke to have certainly seen a big reduction in catches since the 1970s. One said: “There’s only mackerel left - and then only in the summer. You used to see people angling from the beach at the West Bay there, even at night. There’s no point now because there’s nothing to catch.”
The other said: “It’s no a one-man-band or a guy with a rod that’s causing the problem. And it’s not down to the Clyde being dirty - it’s cleaner now than it was in the 70s - it’s the trawlers.”

Until the mid-1980s people came to Dunoon specifically as an angling location. One local man who ran a tourist angling boat said: “We gave up on the Clyde and went into the Holy Loch once the American base had been cleared up. It was fine for a while until the trawlers moved in and cleared it out. I sold the boat in 1995 - there were no fish.”

Archie McFarlane of the Clyde Fishermen's Association said that commercial fishing is not the only cause of dwindling fish stocks.
He said: “The report infers that commercial fishing is the cause of all the Clyde’s problems. Pollution, although better than it has been, including run-off from agricultural land - sometimes with chemicals – is a big problem. Fish stocks are recovering slower in the Clyde than elsewhere in Scotland, but they are recovering."
Mr McFarlane also said that warming is an issue: “Cold water species such as halibut and cod will move on as the Clyde warms up - they don’t like warm water.”

He continued: “The report’s claims that fishermen are to blame for all the Clyde’s problems are wide of the mark - seals, for example, eat around three times the amount that the Scottish fishing industry catches.”

Mr McFarlane then claimed that the York University report is flawed. He said: “The report is based on fish landings - not on fish stock. Virtually all Clyde vessels are now out to catch prawns – they are incentivised not to catch fish by getting extra days at sea if they don’t.
“Evidence used in the report is mostly anecdotal. To base a supposedly scientific report on anecdotal evidence  is not really on.

“We don’t need to do much about this report though, we are letting proper marine scientists rubbish it for us.”