Fishing for the truth about angling in Scotland
RELATIONS 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 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 ReadingIT’S THE dry season for news. Those summer holiday dog days when newspapers up and down the land trawl through the cuttings and weekly newspapers for a useful story to follow up and fill all those gaping empty column inches. So readers of The Times – at least those who still pay to read it …
Continue ReadingFED UP with the mealy-mouthed political wrangling in the big election debate? Take the increasingly cynical view that it’s all a bit of a waste of time? Well if you have ever enjoyed a day’s salmon or sea trout fishing on a Scottish river, and think politics doesn’t really matter when it comes to having…
Continue ReadingIF THERE is a single publication which presents a clear and balanced view of the health and welfare of Scotland’s migratory game fish, it is the Association of Salmon Fishery Boards’ (ASFB) annual review. Launched last year in a new format, this report should be mandatory reading for anyone interested in the future of salmon…
Continue ReadingWild salmon: S&TA nine-point action plan for survival THE WILD salmon lobby today accused fish farmers and the Government of holding a sword of Damocles over the head of one of Scotland’s most iconic natural resources. In the latest of a series of increasingly belligerent attacks on the multi-million pound aquaculture industry, game fishery campaigners…
Continue ReadingINCREASING tension between Scottish wild salmon interests, and the Government and multi-million pound aquaculture industry, is becoming more apparent in the wake of last week’s Loch Lochy smolt escape. The Government has since claimed that the salmon farming industry and wild fish interests are cooperating to take a “huge step forward” in containment and make…
Continue ReadingSCOTTISH aquaculture interests today apologised for the Loch Lochy smolt escape and pledged to work with Government fish health inspectors to investigate the causes and improve staff training. Marine Harvest, owner of the Lochy farm also gave an undertaking that it would “co-operate fully with wild fisheries interests to re-capture any fish” it could. Gideon…
Continue ReadingTHE Scottish Government was today urged to act rapidly to forestall severe increases in sea lice infestation expected to hit marine salmon farms in the West Highlands and islands. Fears also emerged that Scotland could become a “dumping ground’’ for bad practice by multinational salmon producers if our parasite control regulations were not harmonised with…
Continue ReadingA FURIOUS row has broken out between the head of Scotland’s salmon farming industry and the administrators of wild salmon fishing over a denial that salmon production is to blame for declining stocks in the nation’s rivers. A claim that salmon numbers were already in decline in Scottish waters before the advent of farm cages…
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