Scottish fishermen pin hope on EU reform A fisherman repairing his net as the sun sets on Peterhead harbour in Scotland Even on a cold, dark north-eastern Scottish morning, the fish traders of Peterhead are a cheerful bunch, filling the last minutes before the 7am start of auctions with friendly banter and the occasional joke. But when the topic turns to the EU, the harbour humour cannot disguise the deep bitterness many feel about an organisation they believe has gutted the regional fishing industry. "I can tell you what I think of the EU, but you'll no" be able to print it," says one buyer. He is examining the glistening contents of one of the 922 boxes of freshly landed cod on offer in what is the UK's largest fishing port. "The EU has been devastating for the Scottish fishing industry," according to Andrew Charles, a seafood processor. He says many families have been forced out of the business by the bloc's fleet reduction policies. The number of Scottish fishing boats fell from 2,365 in 2004 to 2,094 in 2011, according to the Marine Management Organisation, the UK regulator. However, the union now has a chance to rebuild its reputation in harbours such as Peterhead. After years of discussion and delay, significant reform of its widely despised "common fisheries policy" now looks set to happen. The European parliament last week voted by 502 members to 137 to allow regional control of fisheries management and a proposed ban on discarding of fish at sea. The measures require fishermen to bring their catches within sustainable limits by 2015 to help stocks to recover by 2020. Moreover, European fisheries ministers have agreed to a mid-2013 deadline for political agreement on change. North Atlantic row Many in the Scottish fishing industry consider the EU a source of trouble, but when it comes to the escalating North Atlantic "mackerel war," the enemy is one of old: Iceland. The dispute over mackerel fishing quotas has revived memories of the "cod wars" of the 1950s and 1970s, when the UK deployed Royal Navy ships to protect British trawlers working in disputed waters around Iceland. This time, Iceland's decision significantly to increase their mackerel catch - a move followed by the Faroe Islands - has caused outrage among Scottish and Irish fishermen, who rely heavily on the increasingly popular oily fish. Together the Icelandic and Faroe Islands mackerel quota was nearly 300,000 tonnes in 2012, on top of the EU total of 349,230 tonnes, pushing catches to well above estimated sustainable limits. Iceland says it is reacting to a climate change-induced shift of huge numbers of mackerel north into its waters, where they threaten the local marine ecosystem, and that the EU and Norway have no right to demand 90 per cent of the species quota for themselves. But Scottish fishermen counter that Iceland had little previous record of fishing mackerel, that increased numbers reflect effective stock management, and that Iceland's actions are detrimental to their biggest catch. The EU has now threatened sanctions, worrying some in the eastern English town of Grimsby, a big processing centre for Icelandic seafood. But Bertie Armstrong, chief executive of the Scottish Fishermen's Federation, says the EU needs to be more assertive in the dispute against tiny island adversaries. "It took a lot of time to get in place the regulations to apply sanctions . . . and of course sanctions have yet to happen," he says. We don't think it's been fast enough. Anti-EU feeling on Scotland's northeast coast originates in part from Britain's decision to open its fishing grounds when it entered the then European Economic Community in 1973, says John Wallace, chief executive of the Peterhead Port Authority. Granting access was like the UK taking a share in Polish coal or "asking for some of Spain's sunshine," he says. Mr Wallace says the biggest complaint is that the industry has been mismanaged - a charge echoed by Scottish conservationists and politicians. No one denies cross-border co-operation is needed to ensure marine resources are used sustainably. And the EU is hardly the source of all woes: unrestrained fishing and new technology have slashed stocks and disrupted fishing communities worldwide. Nor are Scotland's fishermen always paragons: 17 skippers and a processing firm were convicted last year of landing thousands of tonnes of off-quota "black fish." But critics say the bloc's current methods of deciding permissible catches and of enforcement help neither fish stocks nor the industry. Limits on how much fish can be landed - as opposed to actually caught - leads to the discarding at sea of huge volumes that are considered "low value" or are outside approved quotas. Then there are the annual catch limit negotiations, which often end with crucial decisions being taken "by bleary-eyed ministers at some ungodly hour of the early morning in Brussels, following hours of unseemly horse-trading," Richard Lochhead, Scotland's rural affairs and the environment minister, said before the latest round in December. The biggest problem is excessive centralisation, says Bertie Armstrong, chief executive of the Scottish Fishermen's Federation, adding that skippers now have to take into account about 1,000 pieces of European legislation, which even includes how nets are mended. "One size cannot fit all," he says. Some in the industry take particular exception to the fact that a nation such as Austria, which has no sea fishing industry, has a lead role in policy negotiations. "Austria - a landlocked country - what the hell do they know about fish?" says Doug Rennie, vice chair of Scottish Seafood Association. That's the sort of thing we're up against. Decentralised management of fisheries would not be a panacea. What constitutes sustainable catch levels are fiercely disputed. Some fishermen and traders blame "tree-huggers" and the media for demonising their industry and scaremongering about stocks. But authorities in Brussels, London and Edinburgh have good reasons to show they can look after both fish and fishermen. Scotland will vote on independence from the UK next year and the UK faces a possible referendum on EU membership in 2017. Charles Bruce, a skipper from Fraserburgh, another Scottish fishing port further up the northeast coast, thinks the industry would be better off out of the EU, but also criticises the Scottish government for what seems to him a much tougher regulatory regime than is enforced by other European nations. Mr Bruce's trawler now has to fish for prawns and haddock with holes cut in its nets to reduce the amount of cod caught by accident, he says. "[On] the last trip [we were running] next to a Danish vessel; he had eight nets out with no cod avoidance measures and we had to do it with two nets and six foot holes in our nets, losing everything," Mr Bruce says. We're saving stocks for other countries to catch.