Political Podium: ‘Western Isles Deserve a Share Of Bluefin Bonanza’
24th December 2024
Viewpoints from across the political spectrum. This week: the new Labour MP for Na h-Eileanan an Iar, Torcuil Crichton MP.
I try to spend a bit of the summer on a small island off the coast of Sicily. Tuna fishing used to be the mainstay of Merettimo, but now the fishing boats have mostly been converted to tourism.
The traditional tuna fishery, which involved herding these massive fish into coastal net traps, was long ago overtaken by deep-sea sonar, Japanese-funded trawls and climate change.
Thanks to global warming, the tuna stocks have moved to another island off the coast of a larger island. Bluefin tuna are now roaming far north in the Atlantic, providing an amazing rod and line experience for dedicated anglers and an enviable commercial opportunity for the Western Isles.
A decade-long catch and release scheme around the British coast shows stocks from the Atlantic coast of Harris down to the Bay of Biscay and out to the Azores.
The rod and line fishery off the Western Isles is good, the catches are selective, of good quality, and of the same stock as those caught in other regions of the UK.
Torcuil Crichton aboard for a landing by a local vessel just back from a trip to remote St Kilda, 25 miles northwest of North Uist. “I try to see as much as I can of the local fleet activity – this trip to St Kilda resulted in one of the best crab and lobster landings that I have ever seen!”
The wandering tuna has the potential to e a great home and export market, and in 2023 one local operator in Harris, Angus Campbell, was granted a commercial licence to land fish, having worked a rod and line operation over many years.
However, the conditions of the licence only allowed landings in Stornoway, on the east coast of Lewis, far from the usual fishing grounds on the Atlantic coast of Harris.
The two fish landed caused a great stir; one was immediately sold locally, and another was purchased by an Edinburgh fish merchant. So far, so exciting.
However, in the 2024 allocation a total of 104 licence applications were received by the MMO, after it had developed a special scoring system.
It turned out to be more than special. All the 10 licences were issued to vessels in the South West of England. No commercial licence was issued to any vessel in Scotland, despite Angus Campbell having invested considerable sums of money in gear, and in research of the domestic and international markets.
For all the quota to be allocated to one area of the UK seems very odd. It is not what we would expect, and the UK government has to look again at the criteria for the 2025 allocation.
A bluefin tuna fishery in the Western Isles would be economically significant. For rod and line operators and others who have prepared themselves to turn commercial, it is deeply frustrating to be turned away without even a tug on the line.
It seems sensible for the UK bluefin tuna quota allocation to be distributed on a geographical and socio-economic basis, and that Scotland should be allocated a certain percentage of the total allowable catch.
This would be a fair and pragmatic approach, and I’ll be urging UK ministers to follow the stocks and allocate some of the quota to the Atlantic coast of Scotland.
Podium Q&A
FN: Can you tell us a bit about yourself and what got you into politics?
I’m from the Isle of Lewis and know the islands and coastal Scotland from over 30 years in journalism, starting at the West Highland Free Press and spending a long time in Westminster. I’ve seen plenty of politics close up, and it was time to get into the water rather than throw stones from the shore.
FN: What are the main fisheries issues in your constituency?
The main issue facing fisheries is the same for the whole of the islands – depopulation. There’s a lack of crews and a lack of workers for processing. There’s hope in young people entering the industry, but we really need a response to the population crisis.
FN: What are the main priorities you see for the revised TCA in 2026?
Ahead of that, there is some spare pelagic quota to be allocated by the Scottish government. I’m backing the Western Isles Council proposal to make that community quota, a national asset managed by the local authority and leased to the local industry.
FN: What plans do you have to see fishing at first hand in your constituency? (Do you get seasick?)
As a child our family had a wooden clinker. We fished near the shore, but I’ve been as far west as St Kilda. So far so good on the seasickness.
FN: What’s your favourite seafood?
That would be ceann cropaig in Gaelic, crappit heid or stuffed cod’s head in the rest of Scotland. It’s a cod liver and oatmeal paste stuffed and boiled in a cod head with fish steaks. You can have a mug of the stock and potatoes as a side order. A legendary meal.
