Fishing for the truth about angling in Scotland
APOLOGIES for misleading readers over my last post regarding the proposed introduction of boating charges on Loch Lomond this year. Only the £30 boat registration charge is voluntary; the launching charges at the Duncan Mills and Milarrochy slipways are compulsory and take effect from April 1. Loch Lomond game anglers now face daily fees of…
Continue ReadingSSACN, the Scottish sea angling conservation pressure group, is running a series of thought-provoking articles this month on many aspects of the sport. The organisation is a touch-stone for all the key elements affecting marine conservation around our shores and plays an important part in helping to guide official policy in many areas. It has…
Continue ReadingFEARS of compulsory launching and boat registration charges on Loch Lomond next year appear to have receded, if not quite vanished entirely beneath the waves, following the recent board meeting of the national park’s governing body. A swift change of tactics by the board of the Loch Lomond and Trossachs national park authority (NPA) brought…
Continue ReadingLOCH LOMOND, scene of a long-running acrimonious feud over administration of angling, is set for a further storm this week about plans by Scotland’s first national park authority to introduce charges for boat launching and registration of water-borne craft. A board meeting of the park authority, which receives a £7 million annual subsidy from the…
Continue ReadingSALMON farming injected more than £500 million into the Scottish economy in 2008 with over £84 million worth of capital investment during the last three years, according to an aquaculture industry research report published today. The study, which aims to underline the value of the salmon farming industry to rural economies, comes amid growing animosity…
Continue ReadingMORE than 100 anglers fishing from boat, shore and kayaks took part in the third annual two-day Spurdog Tagathon event in the Argyll area of Scotland earlier this month. The organisers, Scottish Sea Anglers Conservation Network (SSACN) say the number of fish tagged was down a little this year; there were many more smaller fish…
Continue Reading“BULLYING TACTICS” by salmon farmers forced the Scottish Government into a policy u-turn on publishing the results of audits into fish farm escapes and disease infestation, one of the UK’s oldest conservation charities claims today. Threatened with possible legal action by the Scottish Salmon Producers’ Organisation (SSPO) if the results of the inspection reports were…
Continue ReadingIT CAN hardly have come as much surprise to Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond to find a letter postmarked ‘Faroes’ on his desk this week. He might reasonably have been anticipating it since June 2008. That was when the Greenland and Faroese authorities first targeted Scotland – along with Norway – for a lamentable lack…
Continue ReadingTHE wild fish lobby can huff and puff as much as it likes, but the latest spat over coastal salmon netting around Scotland demonstrates just how divided the warring factions are and illustrates pointedly Government dithering about how to solve the issues.
Continue ReadingGROWING confidence about the emergence of a new force in the drive for a more sustainable approach to sea fishing around Scotland was evident at the first symposium organised by COAST, the Arran-based marine pressure group. Some 40 international delegates from all fields of marine policy and science took part in the weekend event…
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