Fishermen want answers to their questions

But the industry is furious and believes Scotland's food safety experts are being over zealous.

Fishermen's leaders have tabled a series of 50 questions they want answered when they meet Scottish Health Minister Susan Deacon and Fisheries Minister John Home Robertson in Edinburgh on Tuesday.

These include questions over the future of the scallop industry and whether ASP is likely to be an annual problem.

Ministers will also be quizzed over testing procedures, the conditions which give rise to the toxins and the measures planned to restore the fishermen's confidence in the Food Standards Agency.

Last month the Scottish Executive approved measures to help those worst affected by the ban on fishing for scallops.

Calls to pay compensation were resisted but the executive decided to allow some vessels to catch west coast prawns until the end of the year, an extension of four months.

Maintain viability

The amendment applies to licence-holders who can prove that at least 60% of their 1999 catch value came from west coast scallops.

The executive said the relaxation would let scallop fishermen pursue an alternative fishery and help maintain their viability.

But Hugh Allan, secretary of the Mallaig and North West Fishermen's Association, said the measure would not apply to many boats.

He said conversion to prawn fishing would be a major expense and predicted the measure was unlikely to be taken up.

ASP is caused by marine algae which produce a toxin, domoic acid.

Symptoms include nausea, vomiting and short-term memory loss.

Victims are known to have been killed by the poison.