Hansard

Like my colleagues, I am grateful to Maureen Macmillan for lodging the motion, which I take great pleasure in supporting. We should celebrate the work of NASCO, which, as members said, is the only international treaty organisation that is based in Scotland and has its headquarters in Edinburgh.

As members said, the Atlantic salmon is very important to Scotland. Not only do we appreciate the economic importance of salmon, given that salmon anglers spend more than £70 million every year, which benefits our rural economy, but we have a well-deserved, world-wide reputation for looking after our salmon resource.

In Scotland we have had a close association with salmon, salmon fishing, and salmon conservation for many centuries, as Richard Lochhead said. The first piece of legislation on the matter for which we have documentary evidence dates from 1424. The legislation concerns the need to observe the weekly close time—it is interesting to note that some things never change.

We have not been idle in the Scottish Parliament. In the short time since devolution, we have enacted more than 20 pieces of primary and subordinate legislation that relate to the conservation and management of salmon. During the past couple of years, the Scottish Executive and stakeholders in Scotland have worked together to develop the salmon and freshwater fisheries proposals that will be set out in the forthcoming bill on aquaculture and fisheries, which will be introduced in the Parliament in the summer.

Richard Lochhead, Maureen Macmillan and others mentioned access. I am aware that there is concern that access and fisheries management will not be dealt with in the forthcoming bill. However, when I spoke to members of the freshwater fisheries forum, which represents the vast majority of anglers in Scotland, I noted a clear view among them that more work needs to be done. That is absolutely not to say that an integrated fisheries management system will not be forthcoming; it will be. Such a system simply would not be ready in time to be included in the bill. I assure members that work is on-going and the freshwater fisheries forum will continue after the bill has been introduced.

Jamie McGrigor and others talked about regulation. The regulation of the fish farming industry will be essential if the public are to have confidence in the industry, but of course we must ensure that regulation is proportionate and does not overburden the industry. We must strike the right balance.

Mark Ruskell and others referred to escapes. There is evidence that escaped farmed salmon spawn with other farmed salmon and with wild fish and there is concern about the genetic implications of that. However, it is also acknowledged that spawning success in such circumstances is low and that the survival rates of offspring might be lower than those of wild fish. The fact that the overall effect remains a little unclear means that we must listen to the science. Several members mentioned the importance of securing accurate, up-to-date scientific evidence and the Executive has commissioned work to examine the effects of location and relocation of fish farms, to assess the impact of escapes on wild stocks.