According to this article from "Fishing News" it is actually divers , not dredgers who are the threat to scallop stocks
The article would be quite funny, were it not being apparently taken seriously by DEFRA. It is actually cited as a reference on the announcement on the Cornwall Sea Fisheries Committee website. (I have never heard of an opinion piece from a trade paper being used to justify a byelaw before)
The writer of the article, Mike Kaiser is a fisheries scientist who has spent a lot of time cosying up to the scallop dredgers, and has recently been appointed as a DEFRA advisor. He attended the inaugural meeting of the South West Inshore Scallopers Association (a dredgers organisation formed to fight the closure of areas of Lyme Bay to dredging) where he was described in their press release as "a friendly fisheries scientist"
The Radio 4 Food Programme about scallop diving mentioned in the article can be found here
BBC - Radio 4 - The Food Programme and is quite interesting
Jim Portus of the Inshore Scallopers Association does not come across well (to say the least....) again claiming divers are a threat to scallop stocks. You can see why he was straight on the phone afterwards to "a friendly fisheries scientist" to try and do some damage limitation
cheers
dave
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