SSMO - Shetland Shellfish Management Organisation

[blue beetle]

urabug If you think that the SSMO are doing anything meaningful to protect crab stocks around Shetland then you are sadly deluded. Shetland crab has done more to reduce crab mortality in the last 3 months than the SSMO have done in 16 years.

The SSMO,s main achievements have been to completely ruin the second hand boat market ,ruin the buckie fishery by setting the minimum size 10mm too high,  and to force the next generation of young fishermen to fish without licences and sell their catches through the back door. They can make up as many stupid rules as they want but no one is policing them .The SFPA don't want to get involved. And the college hasn't the funds to do it. The only thing they really can control is the number of licences they hand out. And the pointless 8 week ban on landing velvets .So that is what they do. !  This puts puts huge financial  pressure on the buyers every summer but they don't seem to give a toss about that. If the velvets are berried or soft the shouldn't be landed at any time of the year, The buyers and the SSMO should be policing that.  

Allowing anyone to fish and making sure that the shellfish landed were the correct size and quality and meaningful sanctions against anyone who lands rubbish would do more to protect stocks than anything the SSMO are doing at the moment . IMHO.

[Urabug]

blue beetle I know nothing about the SSMO,but it obvious that all fishing has to be controled. Boats are getting bigger and bigger and with the help of modern technology catching more and more for the benefit of less and less as there are far fewer boats so less men required.

 

Used to be hundreds of folk employed in the fishing industry --how many now?

 

Scallop dredgers have more and more powerful engines and the capability to cover more ground. The same grounds are being fished by different boats thus completely cleaning it out. The same goes for crab and lobster fishing.

 

Shetland needs to control its fishing grounds, and needs to pay particular attention to it's inshore fisheries .

 

This is not going to be easy and what ever measures are taken will never meet everyones approval,but if everthing is cleaned out there will simply be nothing for anyone

 

There also has to be some sensible system for the occasional fisherman who only does a little fishing for pleasure ,there would be no point having a boat if one could not try the odd creel from time to time. .

Edited January 17, 2016 by Urabug

[blackcow]

Hi guys. SSMO mmmm save all your energy fur Shetland autonomy. The SSMO is, as it funds NAFC indirectly at the fishermans cost. It can't ever be squashed as too many worms will crawl. Become autonomous, all this stops. This high level of corruption will only stop if we take control. At any level it can only be better than what we have!

[ll]

Can always buy a boat with a 'free' permit if your stuck it would appear?

[Scorrie]

Regarding landings and overfishing:

 

Some (not all, I hasten to add) creelers are more than happy to drag up anything off the seabed and attempt to flog it regardless of how it affects stock levels. This isn't a problem unique to Shetland, but there's certainly some that if I had my way I'd take the licence off them and let someone else have a go.

 

I've seen landings where 50% of the total landed have been rejected at purchase point for being light, soft, obviously dead in the creel, in horrendously bad condition with black spot or underweight. Useless. And when confronted, all you get is dummies being spat out and complaints about 'being ripped off' frome these individuals. Yet other boats manage to land consistently good quality crabs of the right size. Doesn't take an Einstein to work out who's doing the ripping off in these circumstances.

 

It's a pity a system can't be employed where if a licence holder consistently lands rubbish, their licence would be revoked. That would give newcomers a foot in the door.

Edited January 24, 2016 by Scorrie

[papsy]

well how little you know scorrie because we put our famous ssmo number on every box landed so if theres any problem with it they know whos landed it.

[Scorrie]

Papsy, whatever valid points you make are invalidated by your childish name-calling of anyone who you perceive to be a 'landlubber' - or some other ridiculous name.

 

 

To clarify:

 

I know exactly what boats are responsible as (as you say) each box is landed from the boats and tagged with the boats name etc. I'd have thought it would have been obvious to anyone in the industry that this would  be taken as happening. Kindly put aside your blinkered prejudice and PAY ATTENTION.

 

The reason I know this is because I was responsible for weighing off, grading and processing the crab as they were brought in from the boats. I'd be handling anything up to 140 boxes a day from boats as far apart as Unst, Whalsa and Westside. I only stopped doing it 12 months ago.

All my observations are based on having done it myself. Day in, day out 5 to 6 days per week. For a few years.

 

If you have your finger on the pulse as much as you think you have, then you'll know who I am (or at least have heard of me) and whom I've worked for in Shetland.

 

Stop embarrassing yourself and put something more constructive into the discussion.

[Scorrie]

urabug If you think that the SSMO are doing anything meaningful to protect crab stocks around Shetland then you are sadly deluded. Shetland crab has done more to reduce crab mortality in the last 3 months than the SSMO have done in 16 years.

The SSMO,s main achievements have been to completely ruin the second hand boat market ,ruin the buckie fishery by setting the minimum size 10mm too high,  and to force the next generation of young fishermen to fish without licences and sell their catches through the back door. They can make up as many stupid rules as they want but no one is policing them .The SFPA don't want to get involved. And the college hasn't the funds to do it. The only thing they really can control is the number of licences they hand out. And the pointless 8 week ban on landing velvets .So that is what they do. !  This puts puts huge financial  pressure on the buyers every summer but they don't seem to give a toss about that. If the velvets are berried or soft the shouldn't be landed at any time of the year, The buyers and the SSMO should be policing that.  

Allowing anyone to fish and making sure that the shellfish landed were the correct size and quality and meaningful sanctions against anyone who lands rubbish would do more to protect stocks than anything the SSMO are doing at the moment . IMHO.

 

Some very good points there, Blue Beetle, but I'll disagree with you (in part) on your last sentence:

 

Opening up and allowing anyone to fish could be a double-edged sword. Yes, it will allow new blood into the industry, but who are they going to sell to in a market of deflated prices and what appears to be already an over-supply problem in Shetland? There's only so many claws you can sell at a decent price on the Continent and no sausage wants the brown meat.

 

The way I see it, all this would do at the present time is harm the guys who've been at the creels for years full time and put all the graft and expense into a full time operation, only to see their business eroded by a new flood of creels in the water, many of which will be no doubt owned by people who are already employed elsewhere..

For example, in Caithness there's (as you say) no restrictions on who can fish providing you have Cat A VCU's. The downside is that there are people working in well paid jobs offshore ,who had the money to buy lots of creels and are/were bombarding the place with creels when they're back on the beach to the detriment of everyone else. These people were then complaining loudly if anyone else put fleets or even singles in what they perceived to be 'their' patch of seabed. It got that bloody ridiculous at one point, that I got pissed off with it all and stopped fishing completely as I couldn't be arsed with the falling out. 

 

And that's my worry with a completely open policy, BB, I'd hate to see the same thing happen around Shetland.

 

 

Having said that, going back to my original post regarding landings quality, you're right, sharpening up with some more competition could help increase the quality of some boats landings. But, isn't it a bit unfair to effectively penalize the more professional creelers just to bring the odd cowboy into line?

Edited January 27, 2016 by Scorrie

[blue beetle]

Just 2points before i shut up  scorie . I have already said earlier there are many many hundreds of creels already being fished quite legaly around Shetland by un licenced boats.

And secondly a question for you.  Can you name one person fishing creels around Shetland now who is COMPLETELY dependant on it for a living.   Because I cant think of anyone.

IMHO your Caithness scenario has already happened here.!

[blue beetle]

Apologies I have just thought of one. But sadly he sank da idder day. And if I remember correctly he is not a fan of the SSMO either.

[Scorrie]

Point regarding hundreds of creels being fished legally but unlicenced:

 

A very astute observation, looking at it from that angle. But...if the fishing was de-regulated, would it affect directly those already fishing those creels that much? My guess is they'd carry on much as before - so no issues there - but I still reckon you'd have more people investing in gear and adding a lot more into the mix. I've no evidence to support my theory at all, but that's how it seems to me.

 

Full time fishermen? 

 

You may have me there, I'm scratching my head on this one. I reckon out of the boats I dealt with then two or possibly three may be truly full-time, but there is a question mark over two of those as well...... I'll not name them in public as it's not fair to name individuals and drag them into a discussion on a personal level. But fair comment, I reckon.

 

I've PM'd you.

[Scorrie]

Nearly forgot, I'm not necessarily a fan of the SSMO or otherwise, simply because I've had no involvement with the regulatory side of things in Shetland.

 

I suppose I'm of the opinion that the industry definitely needs regulating - but as to whether SSMO are doing a good job or not I couldn't really say.

[Redrobbie99]

Just look what happened to Shetlands Sea Trout because of uncontrolled gill netting . 

[blue beetle]

Uncontrolled seals more like.

[f20960]

RE part time/ full time shellfishermen

 

I am new to Shetland and am confused by this full time \ part time fisherman issue.

I have read the Scottish governments website and there only seems to be 2 kinds of fishermen mentioned.

1. A commercial licenced fisherman who owns a registered boat and holds a licence to fish issued from Cardiff and can legally sell his catch.

2.Unlicenced hobby fisherman with no licence and/or registration who can catch one or two lobsters for his own use (which I hope to do this summer when I get a boat and 2 or 3 pots)

There seems to be no full time/ part time category.

I can only assume that a part time fisherman is a fisherman who has some other means of income and a full time fisherman is someone with absolutely no other means of income whatsoever ie croft, property etc.

If this is the case it would appear that there are hardly any full time workers in Shetland as nearly everyone I meet including lawyers, engineers,doctors, road workers, teachers etc have other means of income other than their primary job.

Unlike some, I do not have a problem with this but do not see a difference between say, an engineer who also has a croft and does a few homers at night and an engineer who owns a registered and licenced boat and catches a few lobsters at night.

It could be argued that both are encroaching on someone else livelihood. One of them on the full time farmers by over supplying the lamb market and also taking work away from the full time engineering firms. The other one, who seems to be a much more controversial character, catching the full time fishermans shellfish. Can someone please clear up my confusion.