An alliance of more than a hundred organisations has demanded that trawlers be banned from fishing within three miles of Scotland’s coastline.
Members of the Our Seas coalition insisted that the three-mile limit was “not a radical measure” and would benefit both the environment and coastal communities.
With talks taking place between the SNP and the Scottish Greens over a formal co-operation deal, both parties are being pressed to consider the issue.
A previous ban on trawling the seabed within three miles of the coast was repealed by the UK government in 1984. Ailsa McLellan, the Our Seas coalition co-ordinator, claimed that this “led to what academics called ‘ecological meltdown’”. She said: “There are many marine policy areas where we want to see change, given this country’s ‘out of sight, out of mind’ approach to our marine ecology and economy.
“But a return to a modernised three-mile limit is the single measure which we collectively believe would bring the greatest benefits for our waters, our environment and for this country’s coastal communities. This is not a radical measure — bottom-trawling was previously banned in our inshore waters — and it will make our seas and fisheries more resilient in the future.”
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The Our Seas coalition is made up of a range of organisations, including inshore fishing associations, community groups, sea anglers, tourism businesses and environmental organisations.
Research for the Scottish Creel Fishermen’s Federation, one of the members, found that for every thousand tonnes of langoustine caught by creeling, which uses baskets, rather than trawling, it would benefit the Scottish economy by £6.7 million, with about £400,000 more profit for the sector.
Alistair Sinclair, national co-ordinator of the federation, said: “Our members fish in a way which is genuinely sustainable for the long term but the value of our fisheries are hampered by the activities of a poorly regulated minority. A return of an inshore limit is . . . not an end to dredging and bottom-trawling, but would ensure they only operate in waters where those methods do much less damage.”
Annabel Lawrence, of the Community Association of Lochs and Sounds, said: “Being forced to live with the status quo, watching a small number of boats damage the seabed, is painful and frustrating. Politicians — both SNP and Green — need to make meaningful decisions now to end this destruction.”
