Meeting of the Parliament 02 May 2023
That gets to the nub of the matter. This is not about protecting the marine areas—it is about how we protect them. That is done not from the top down but from the bottom up, with those who want to protect them as much as we do. That is my point. It is those who fish the seas who are more motivated to protect the seas than anybody else.
I will give an example of that. When I was first elected to this Parliament, I represented the community on Loch Torridon, which is the area where I was brought up. The community badly wanted the loch closed to mobile gear boats, and it took persuasion to make that happen. There were meetings and there was negativity—it was close to impossible. That community was looking to preserve its income, fishery and livelihoods.
It took a long time, but the request was eventually granted. It was not easily obtained, but the results were positive—so positive, in fact, that the area became a honey pot for static gear boats, which threatened the good work that had been put in place. Again, the community asked for the powers to manage the fishing effort, and again it was rebuffed. It was the same top-down approach that we are seeing now.
The Scottish Government is condescendingly telling communities how they need to work and how to manage their seas. It is simply wrong. This is the same Scottish Government that, when it reduced quotas in the North Sea, encouraged boats to fish the Minch and hoover up the prawn quota. The prawn quota was finished in six months, putting the very survival of those fishing communities in the balance. It was the Scottish Government that did that, not the fishers in those communities.
Those same communities want the Scottish Government to look at what they are doing. The Scottish Government cannot take the moral high ground over them. It has to stop.