Colin Smyth MSP
South Scotland MSP and Scottish Labour’s Rural Economy Spokesperson Colin Smyth has welcomed the Isle of Man Government’s decision to reverse the rules requiring boats to report all king scallop catches from Manx waters to an Isle of Man port.
Colin Smyth said , “I very much welcome this u-turn by the Isle of Man Government. The requirement to go into the Isle of Man port to record the catch would have compromised the freshness of the catch, increased the cost for local fishermen as a result of the totally unnecessary travel and fuel required to go to the Isle of Man and ultimately would have put over 300 local jobs at risk.
The scallop industry is worth around £3million to the Scottish economy and in Dumfries and Galloway it supports hundreds of local jobs.
The Council highlighted local concerns to the the Isle of Man Government and if the Scottish Government had also acted quickly then perhaps these 2 week of uncertainly would not have happened.
Nevertheless I welcome the move by the Isle of Man and hope we can continue to work together to ensure the success of the industry for both our lands