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
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 hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel