HAVING lived long enough to remember the cry in Glasgow, “Loch Fyne herring”, and living now on the shores of this beautiful but almost barren loch (hardly a cod to be caught and mackerel shoals fewer and arriving later) I just wish the SNP Government would take up the cudgels on behalf of the environment, something it professes to be sympathetic to.

Trawlers, unregulated, will clean up the waters they fish in and, in the case of Upper Loch Fyne, the sea-loch bed is ripped apart in the search for fish, even if it just goes as cat food or fertiliser. Tons of juvenile crustaceans, squat lobsters and tiny prawns, crabs and shellfish are destroyed.

Powerful lobbying by the fishermen’s unions should be weighed against the destruction of our sea loch beds and the needless loss of healthy stocks that are part of the food chain. No doubt some will say the herring in Loch Fyne disappeared because of global warming, or due to plankton deserting the loch for other waters, but we were warned years go by some old fishermen that the new types of nets and fishing methods would empty the loch.

Toadying up to the fishermen’s unions will bring no rewards for the SNP, as these people deserted the party in droves thinking they would benefit when we leave the EU. The UK Government will sell them out to the EU as bargaining tools.

If Scotland becomes an independent country, and we reapply to join the EU, we would have to allow our waters to be fished by our European member states.

Where are all of the environmental organisations on this matter? Their voices should be louder and constant. Many of us would like to see sustainable creel fishing around our wonderful coastline, with government financial aid to trawlermen and associated businesses in the inland fishing areas to enable the fishing industry to thrive with a longer and prosperous future.

James Nolan,

Veyatie,

The Bay,

Strachur