UK fishing 'needs major reform'

Fishermen should contribute to conserving stock

Radical reforms and further cuts in the UK fishing fleet are expected to be recommended by a major government report published on Thursday.

The prime minister's strategy unit will argue that the industry must embrace change if it is to move out of perpetual crisis.

It is also due to recommend a 13% cut in the fleet, based mainly in Scotland, catching white fish such as cod.

This comes after a major boat-scrapping programme has already taken place.

Tony Blair commissioned the year-long study from his advisers to look at whether British sea fishing had a long-term future as a profitable industry.

The report will provide advice rather than policy, but could still prove difficult politically.

'Dismay' at mooted fishing cuts

The report will argue for decisions on managing fish stocks to be made at regional level instead of being centralised in Brussels.

It will also recommend that fishermen themselves be given a bigger stake in conserving stocks and sticking to the rules.

The current European fishing deal to protect stocks limits Scottish fishing boats to 15 days a month in the North Sea.

'Planning funeral'

BBC correspondent Tim Hirsch said the government may address the "absurdity" of fisherman having to throw back fish they have caught because "they're not fish they're allowed to catch".

He said the government was attracted to the idea of "effort control" where, instead of quotas based on weight of fish, fishermen would be told how many days a year each type of boat is allowed to go out to sea.

There is no need for this, it is a spectacular piece of incompetence Alex Salmond SNP

The strategy unit report is facing strong criticism from fishing organisations as well as Conservative and Scottish Nationalist politicians.

Scottish Conservative fishing spokesman Ted Brocklebank said that he would be meeting leaders of the fishing industry on Friday but that the "government seems to be planning its funeral".

And Alex Salmond, SNP leader in Westminster, said further decommissioning of the white fish fleet would be "a spectacular piece of incompetence".

"If there are any other cuts in the fleet then what happens is not an optimistic future", he told the BBC's Politics Show.

"What you get is a collapse of the infrastructure on which the fleet depends."

Conservation groups are expected to welcome the report's emphasis on environmental responsibility as the key to long-term profits for British fishing.