Fishing for the truth about angling in Scotland
IT is comforting to note that I am not alone in identifying the SNP Government in Scotland of being long on rhetoric but coming up short on action when it concerns many aspects of marine conservation. And Richard Lochhead, the fisheries minister stands accused again of being out of touch with reality in the latest…
Continue ReadingTWO record-breaking sharks, caught off south-west Scotland by sea anglers taking part in an official tagging programme, have highlighted the bizarre rules governing official statistics of UK catches. Two of the largest smoothhound ever seen in Scottish waters were captured by Steve Frayling and Guy Stewart of Paisley-based Silverlure Sea Angling Club and weighed in…
Continue ReadingIT IS heartening today to see two organisations calling for our politicians to stand up and be counted – at least as far as supporting the future of our wild fish are concerned. As I suggested here at the beginning of the year, that action to put our politicians on the spot on the future…
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 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 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…
Continue ReadingRELATIONS between wild game fishing interests and the Scottish Government over fish farming controls have suffered another reverse with the collapse of a key agreement set up to try to establish peace between the salmon industry and anglers.
Continue ReadingTUNE in tonight to BBC-2 where David Attenborough takes a long, hard look at the state of the planet’s oceans following one of the most ambitious scientific studies of our time and asks the question: Is it too late to save the diversity of our seas? Meanwhile, Scotland’s environment minister, Richard Lochhead, has signalled a…
Continue ReadingTHE LAWYER behind the recent high-profile success of Fish Legal in campaigning against fish farm escapes and Scottish Water pollution incidents has been hired by the Salmon & Trout Association (S&TA) to lobby the Government and politicians in the on-going battle for sustainable aquaculture.
Continue ReadingInshore creelers petition for 3-mile trawler ban COMMERCIAL fishing in the Clyde estuary is on the verge of extinction according to an alarming report just published by scientists. The study blames dredging and bottom trawling combined with ineffectual fisheries management by successive governments for precipitating what they call an “ecological meltdown.”
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