A campaigner has criticised the management Scotland's fish, one of the sources of key vitamins we all rely upon.

Nick Underdown, of the organisation Open Seas, said sustainable fishing should be encouraged.

However, he said: "We are interested in protecting our marine environment and the things that live in it.

"We’d like to see more sustainable shellfish and fish, and are promoting sustainable alternatives to damaging fishing.

"Fish are a public and common resource.

"They are currently, they were before we joined the EU and they will be after Brexit.

"Only once they are landed deck do they become someone's property, until this point they are something we all have a stake in."

In a piece in today's Herald he says: "Leaving the EU is going to create some massive changes to the way we manage our seas and fisheries.

"The legal basis for highly important rules, like the protection of areas with high densities of spawning fish, the ban on discarding fish at sea and for transparency of stock management, will disappear. However, it also brings with it some massive opportunities.

"Political debate has focussed largely on the fishing lobby’s ambition to control who is allowed to fish in UK waters.

"However, this is not the sole or most important issue at stake."

Mr Underdown said: "The CFP was reformed in 2013, following significant public pressure and attention; petitions calling for an end to discarding unwanted fish at sea reached more than 850,000 signatures. The reforms adopted rules that had been proven to work in other fisheries across the world.

"On the face of it, things looked good; fisheries would be required to achieve the most sustainable and highest yield, discarding would have to end, an ecosystem based approach to managing the fishery was introduced, taking into account protection of spawning grounds and the wider health of the ecosystem. And perhaps most importantly, the opportunity to fish - the fishing quota itself - would be preferentially given to those who operate sustainably and with the best social outcomes."

Fish is rich in vitamins including B-complex vitamins.

The Open Seas project spokesman also said: "The seas are a common resource, but uncontrolled access caused some serious impacts only a generation ago.

"Many will testify to the boom and bust experienced around our fishing towns.

"Following a lot of hard work we have seen stocks like North Sea cod recover to viable fisheries.

"However, evidence based recommendations have not been followed so rigorously for our inshore – we’re stuck fishing the bottom for ‘high risk’ seafood with broadly damaging consequences.

"We can and should do much better."