Scottish North Sea fishermen repairing nets in Peterhead, Scotland, April, 2014. Immigrants have become a mainstay of Scotland’s farming and fishing industries. Migrant workers from eastern Europe seek employment and a fresh start, and are willing to do jobs local people won’t, to crew boats and work in fish factories. Scottish Seafood Association chief executive John Cox said: “Without the ethnic workers, we would have a major capacity problem processing all the fish that’s being landed. The problem in the north-east is the oil and energy employment attracts all the available local labour.


Scotland needs immigrants, and without sustained immigration over the next half century could be in trouble. The fishing industry in Scotland comprises a significant proportion of the United Kingdom fishing industry. A recent inquiry by the Royal Society of Edinburgh found fishing to be of much greater social, economic and cultural importance to Scotland than it is relative to the rest of the UK. Scotland has just of the UK population but lands at its ports over 60% of the total catch in the UK. Many of these are ports in relatively remote communities such as Fraserburgh, Kinlochbervie or Lerwick, which are scattered along an extensive coastline and which, for centuries, have looked to fishing as the main source of employment. Restrictions imposed under the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) affect all European fishing fleets, but they have proved particularly severe in recent years for the demersal or whitefish sector (boats mainly fishing for cod, haddock and whiting) of the Scottish fishing industry.


Size: 3600px × 2400px
Location: Fraserburgh, North East Scotland, UK
Photo credit: © MediaWorldImages / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

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