The UK Government has secured a deal with Europe to prevent further cuts to the amount of North Sea cod Scottish fishermen are allowed to catch.
The industry was facing a 20% cut in quota and a 10% cut in the number of days allowed at sea.
As part of the Cod Recovery Plan, Scottish fishermen were facing severe reductions to the amount of time they could spend at sea catching their quota and automatic reductions in the amount of cod they could catch in the North Sea.
However, the annual EU council discussions in Brussels ended with the Council of Ministers defying the European Parliament and the European Commission in favour of a common sense approach to fishing.
There are still concerns this decision will be challenged in the courts, but the Scottish Conservatives have welcomed this as a practical move prevailing over a legal technicality.
EU fisheries ministers are meeting throughout the week to set fish quotas for 2013.
Scottish Conservative Fisheries spokesman Jamie McGrigor MSP said:
“Like fishermen and fishing communities across Scotland I welcome the news that it appears we have managed to avoid yet further cuts in days at sea and the proposed 20 per cent in cod quota under the Cod Recovery Plan, which was causing so much alarm to our fishermen and flew in the face of science showing a recovery in cod stocks.
“As I said last week in the annual fisheries debate in the Scottish Parliament, these proposals would have caused real harm to the Scottish fishing fleet which has done more for conservation measures than any other in Europe.
“They would also have led to an increase in the wasteful discards everyone wants to avoid.
“I now look to the Scottish Government to deliver other key improvements on the current proposals, including reversing plans for significant cuts in the total allowable catch of important species on the west coast including Megrim, Monkfish, Whiting and Hake.”
