Developing Green Fishing Options for Orkney

By theorkneynews on June 23, 2017 • ( Leave a comment )

By Cara Duncan

An 18-month project is underway by Orkney Fisheries Association (OFA) to develop a number of resources to help local fishermen make robust decisions about Orkney fish. The project will work across disciplines to develop strategic green fishing options to equip the Orkney industry with sustainable evidenced priorities, and a set of collaborative strategies, into the next 20 years to optimise its green sustainable reputation.

OFA will be looking to develop a dynamic timetable model showing optimum fishing times/areas for commercial species with the idea of moving to better seasonal patterns. They will also be liaising with fishermen on the design and production of a bespoke multi escape panel for crustaceans which is best adapted to fishermen’s needs. Not only this but they will be investigating the carbon footprint of the inshore fishery.

This project is funded by European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) through the Fisheries Local Action Group Scheme (FLAG). During this project OFA will be conducting observation tips at sea and interviews with fishermen to gather direct information in order to harness their in depth local knowledge.

OFA will be looking to harvest this vast amount of local information and to develop it into a scientific context. Knowledge of fishing grounds built up over generations can be of valuable commercial intelligence so OFA is seeking as much input from those directly in the fishing industry as possible.

The involvement of fishermen during this project is key and paramount as local fishermen have a huge amount of knowledge and experience into many different factors of fishing in Orkney.

All input into this project is welcomed and any information disclosed is considered strictly confidential. Any fishermen’s information gathered will be protected and treated as sensitive data that will be managed with the greatest of respect.