Chamber and committees

On whom does the responsibility lie for international or UK-wide discussions about that level playing field?

I want to pick up on what Ian Gatt said about there being 150 non-UK vessels fishing the pelagic waters. Is it possible—and does Marine Scotland have the resource—to analyse and share all the data that is collected from REM? We would not want to be biased when it comes to gathering data. We would not want Marine Scotland to target only Scottish vessels, because it would need to use a suitable sampling programme that randomises the data, rather than picking on certain vessels. How will that work?

Marine Scotland will need a huge pool of human analysers to look at the screens and the data. We know that humans can make mistakes, and there is only a certain length of time that humans can look at a screen. You will need a huge pool of resource to be able to analyse that data and make it meaningful.

My final, final question is for Joe Whitelegg. How many non-compliance situations have you come across involving vessels that are not registered to your fisheries?

My question is supplementary to Karen Adam’s question on data transmission request notices. It appears that a number of Scottish vessels have been giving data to Marine Scotland already. How is that data being used? Do you see that data? Is the science for compliance or for opportunity for fishermen to, for example, ensure that they have the right quotas? I am unsure about what that data does and whether there will be the necessary resource to ensure that the data that has been requested is used effectively.

So, is it really science for compliance? You said that you need to have confidence in the sector. Is that because you do not trust the sector and you want to see what it is doing—a bit like Big Brother—or is it because, as you said in your introduction, you want to see the data in order to improve some of the targets that you say are not being achieved in the marine environment? If so, how do you do that, and does Marine Scotland have the resource to do that? Is it science for compliance or science for opportunity?

But those vessels have had REM.

Elspeth Macdonald, do you believe that there is a level playing field? Should there be more information on the number of vessels, where they are from and which of them have had their REM equipment inspected annually?

Does the future fisheries alliance believe that the SSI has the potential to create an unfair playing field? What is your suggestion to achieve a more level playing field?

I am sorry to push you on that, but can you cite some of the studies that have been done—current studies on Scottish vessels—to identify that non-target species have been taken from the waters?