Mackerel in short supply

Huge fishing boats, with their massive nets and modern electronic fish finders, are now so efficient at catching the fish that the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, the advisory body, have recommended a 70 per cent reduction in the catch for 2026.

This scientific advice, although acceptable to the EU, has been opposed by the UK, Russia, Norway, Iceland and the Faeroes. (Norway and the UK are the main catchers of the fish). The Blue Marine Foundation, a respected conservation body, has pointed out the short-sightedness of this policy

Unfortunately, this myopia is not a new problem. In the last 50 years we have seen the extinguishing of the Clyde herring fishery and most of the edible fish stocks in the Firth of Clyde.

Arran residents may remember the enormous mountains of fish weighed in at the Lamlash Fishing Festival in the 1960s and 1970s. Now, of the fish landed on the Clyde, 98 per cent is scampi (Nephrops norvegicus, Dublin Bay prawn). In response to the scientist’s advice, the supermarket chain Waitrose stopped stocking fresh, chilled and frozen mackerel on April 29 this year. They will stop selling tinned mackerel when current stocks run out.

Many an angler will have become hooked on the sport when, in their younger days, they pulled in a trace of feathers with half a dozen mackerel on it. The mackerel arrive in Arran waters in June and if the current trajectory of the decline continues, mackerel may soon go the way of other edible fish on the Clyde.