Before leaving harbour earlier this week for the resumption of the western mackerel fishery in the North Sea, every midwater trawler in northeast Scotland and Shetland fitted a computerised jigging machine and stripper which will be used by skippers to achieve accurate pre-catch sampling to avoid catching juvenile mackerel.

The voluntary initiative, the first of its type in Europe, has been promoted by the Scottish Pelagic Sustainability Group (SPSG), which includes representation from all Scottish pelagic catchers and processors.

The use of jigging machines brings the two main benefits of enabling skippers from catching unwanted juvenile fish while also ensuring that boats will not use fuel unnecessarily when towing for fish they cannot market.

The skippers of a number of Shetland based vessels have trialled the use of jigging to sample mackerel over the past year. The results were fed back to other skippers via the Scottish Pelagic Fishermen's Association. The skippers were very pleased with the strong correlation between sample counts from catches taken when jigging and the resulting trawled catches after a skipper had decided to shoot the midwater trawl based on the information taken by the line caught sample.

After recommending approval of the initiative, James Kerr of North East Fabricators agreed to manufacture a set of strippers for each vessel, while also placing a bulk order with Sea Gear Supplies of Orkney for Belitronic B 35000 computerised jigging machines. The vessels have financed all outlays.

Spokesman for SPSG, Derek Duthie, said "Jigging for a sample of mackerel before deciding whether to trawl is a practical solution to the wider ongoing challenge of reducing discards of fish. I am very pleased that this skipper-led initiative has been rolled out to the entire Scottish fleet as it brings real conservation benefits to the all-important mackerel stock as well as saving fuel.

"This is the first time such an approach has been adopted across an entire fleet and is the latest in a package of sustainability measures introduced over recent years by the Scottish pelagic industry."

Scottish Fisheries Minister, Richard Lochhead, added, "I congratulate the Scottish pelagic sector on this excellent initiative. I am delighted to see the Scottish industry once again taking the lead in Europe on this important issue. The use of automatic jigging machines will make a significant contribution towards reducing discards and towards maintaining a sustainable and profitable Scottish pelagic sector."

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