This morning Barra and South Uist Councillor Donald Manford chaired a meeting of fishermen and fishing industry representatives in Stornoway to mark the launch of the Fishing Industry Science Alliance – Spurdog/Spiny Dogfish Project.
Dr. Clive Fox from the Scottish Marine Institute in Oban explained that the project will run over the next two winters and aims to collect biological data on spurdog by-catch in the Nephrops fisheries operating in the north and south Minch.
Data will be used to inform negotiations regarding the need to discard rather than land this species and will provide information on where spurdog are being caught, how much is being caught, and the size, sex and maturity of the spurdog being caught.
In addition, local skippers will return samples of the fish to Barratlantic and Islander Shellfish which will be analysed by the Scottish Association of Marine Science. Special logsheets and labels will be supplied to participating skippers and a small payment will be made to offset the additional work taking place on the fishing vessels in this regard.
