The methodology used by the Scottish Government to prepare new marine environmental designations has been challenged by island leaders and fishermen who fear fragile communities will be decimated.
Following recent announcements from ministers regarding the management of inshore Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) and Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), the Western Isles Council along with the Western Isles Fisherman’s Association (WIFA) and others representatives of the fisheries industry, have formed a joint working group to oppose the imposition of these designations.
They want to highlight the “hugely detrimental” impact they will have on the communities of the Outer Hebrides and West Coast of Scotland.
The group has no confidence in any of the processes around the development of marine designations around the Outer Hebrides.
Duncan MacInnes of the WIFA said, “The figures produced by Marine Scotland greatly underestimate existing fishing activity in these areas and proposed management measures will have a huge impact on the fishing and processing sectors with potential jobs losses the result. We believe the designations will decimate coastal communities already on the margins of long term sustainability. From a fishing community perspective there is a total lack of confidence in the data being used by Marine Scotland to demonstrate the minimal impact of the designation management measures and a belief that this is at the heart of a fundamentally flawed and undermined process”.
But Scottish Government spokeswoman said:
“Proposals on new designations and management measures are not taken lightly but based on evidence that we need to act to protect our marine environment and biodiversity. Failure to protect these areas, in the longer term, would result in permanent damage to habitats and the fish stocks they support – that is the real risk for our coastal communities.
“To be clear, while the proposals would mean a restriction of fisheries within certain areas, fishermen will still be able to operate in other neighbouring areas.
“We welcome all representations from interest parties on the proposed designations – which is why we extended the period during which submissions can be made.” She said that to date no submission from the council or the WIFA had been received. “We would certainly encourage them to make a contribution given their interest,” she said.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article