Head-to-head: Fishing's future

Many communities have been blighted by cuts

A government report has caused a storm by suggesting further cuts in the number of boats catching white fish such as cod.

An economist and a member of the fishing industry put their cases. You can have your say by filling in the form at the bottom of the page.

PETER CLARKE, INSTITUTE OF ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

We can see on the horizon an end of fishing for wild fish.

If we thought we could get the nation's egg supply or chicken supply from hunting in the woods for chickens or hunting for wild cattle instead of having enclosed farmland we would be simply daft.

This is happening to our maritime resources. Soon they will be enclosed and they will be properly owned.

I think we can see on the horizon an end of fishing for wild fish Peter Clarke

The future for fishing is inland. The idea of trawling out in the North Sea is silly.

The stocks are simply depleting. We have to change the whole assumption that we are operating on.

The biggest fish harvest in the world is not maritime at all - it's from ponds in China.

All our fishing in future, apart from recreational fishing perhaps, will be in enclosed ponds. If I say all I exaggerate, but 95%.

MIKE PARK, SCOTTISH WHITE FISH PRODUCERS' ASSOCIATION

It is not true that we must fish less. The measures that have been taken over the past few years would allow the stocks to return to sustainability, and some of these alarmist comments we have been hearing really don't help the matter.

The Scottish industry in particularly over the last three years has taken measures that no other European nation has taken.

We should sit back and give it two or three years to give it a chance - just to see what happens.

It takes five kilos of [wild] fish to create one kilo of farmed stock Mike Park

The only industrial fishing that goes on in the North Sea in particular just now is fishing which is carried out to feed the likes of farmed salmon, farmed cod, farmed halibut, and it takes five kilos of these fish to create one kilo of farmed stock.

Further cuts would spell disaster for our industry. We have taken measures over the last three years to decrease our fleet by half.

But if we harvest this stock sensibly there is no need for the extreme point of view we have heard from Mr Clarke.