Recent features in the press (Nov 2013) raised the issue that divers are continuing to risk death by “electro fishing” in the Firth of Forth.
People have been aware of this “fishing method” since the early 1990’s and was legislated against in 1998.
This highly dangerous method of fishing, as you can imagine with electricity and water, especially sea water, do not make good bed fellows. One side effect is that divers with amalgam teeth fillings, tend to fall out!!
Having spoken to our suppliers, we have been assured in writing that none of them source from fishermen using this ‘method’. Their gatherers look for small keyhole shapes in the sand or small fountains of water erupting from the sand as they walk across it. The gatherer carries salt of which they pour a small amount into the hole which entices the razor clam to surface. They are then hand collected. None of our suppliers use electric probes to harvest this product as it is illegal and rarely heard about on the West Coast of Scotland where the bulk of our supplies come from.
If you have any disquiet regarding the source of razor clams from your supplier, please let us know for us to investigate further; we can also highlight the suppliers that only use divers who sign up to the Responsible Fishing Scheme and only deal with the licenced divers who fish by hand.
Save as PDF