Minister defends fish farming industry
SCOTLAND’S cabinet secretary for rural economy and tourism, Fergus Ewing, has robustly defended the aquaculture sector at a grilling by members of the Scottish Parliament. He also promised that regulatory reform was on the way and announced that farms will next year be required to report sea lice numbers on a weekly basis.
MSPs on the Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee quizzed Ewing and his civil servants on progress towards reforming the planning process, tackling welfare issues and protecting wild salmon.
Ewing noted a number of steps that had already been taken, including a finfish plan from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, new regulations preventing seal culling, tighter controls on the harvesting of wrasse and streamlining regulatory control of wellboat discharges.
He said that it was important to have an understanding of issues like sea lice and the impact of interaction with wild salmon before finalising a planning framework, not after.
He added, however, that the “spatial planning model” for considering applications for new farm sites – one of the key recommendations of the Salmon Interactions Working Group earlier this year – was “fairly close to being completed”.
Ewing said that many believe regulation in the sector is too complicated, but it was important not to tackle it on a piecemeal basis.
He concluded: “I see the aquaculture sector providing enormous benefits for Scotland… I cannot think of a sector in the rural economy where there has been more investment.”