FISHERIES ministers will face calls to close the deep-sea fishery off the north-west coast of Scotland this week after new reports of drastic falls in stocks.
Fleets of mainly Spanish and Panamanian trawlers fish for deep-sea species such as the orange roughy and the round-nosed grenadier which are popular among consumers on the continent.
But as well as devastating commercial stocks near Rockall and t
he Hatton Bank, the trawlers have been accused of trapping other rare species in nets set for long periods.
According to the environmental group WWF Scotland, the numbers of deep-water sharks such as the leafscale gulper have declined by 80% in just 10 years.
The new figures will be published this week at the annual quota-setting meeting of EU fisheries ministers. The Brussels meeting will discuss deep-sea species in the fishing grounds off Scotland for the next year.
Claire Pescod, the Marine Policy Officer for WWF Scotland, said: "There is a real danger that slow growing, deep-water species will take centuries to recover, if they can at all. Deep-water sharks living around cold water coral mounts such as Rockall and Hatton Bank are being persecuted at a horrific scale and many deep-water shark populations have dropped by 80% with just 10 years of fishing."
Pescod said the gill-net trawlers leave their nets attached to the sea bottom for weeks at a time. By the time the fishermen bring up the nets for harvesting the catch, more than 60% of it is unfit for human consumption as it has rotted in the nets.
In EU waters the orange roughy fishery, at depths deeper than 400 metres, has virtually collapsed in 20 years.
