Conservation plans are a wrecking ball to fishing

I write to this paper for the first time in 43 years of living in Argyll.

This has been provoked by attending a meeting in Tayvallich village hall to consider a Scottish Government consultation on proposed Highly Protected Marine Areas.

The meeting was helpfully called by the organisation Friends of the Sound of Jura and amongst the 50 folk present at least 90 per cent were local fishermen or connected as buyers, representatives etc.

Uniquely at a meeting of fishermen from differing sectors there was no dispute or argument regarding this matter – the Scottish Government require 10 per cent of Scottish seas to be designated a HPMA.

That means no fishing of any sort or any other activity including anchoring a vessel!

This is extreme and a direct result of the SNP colluding with the Green party at the Bute House agreement. To be even about this the UK Government is no better, but our concern is with Holyrood where the tail is wagging the dog.

Many of our Argyll communities have a fishing interest and for several their lifeblood, character and history.

Spatial squeeze in our seas from wind farms, MPAs etc has already put a large area out of bounds. The bulk of the fleet are small vessels that cannot flit to another place if local waters are closed.

Communities will be devastated, jobs will go and a proper way of life will disappear. The fleets of Oban, Tarbert, Campbeltown and the smaller ports are already significantly reduced.

The flavour of the meeting was that fishermen have come to the end of their tether; conservation is in all our interests but this is a wrecking ball.

There is now a disconnect between the city bureaucrats and the countryside and rule-making by office folk who know nothing about the sharp end. I concur with Monica Stewart’s letter of last week re the A83, education and the NHS.

I am now retired after 50-plus years a fisherman and am extremely lucky to have worked through the good years but the future prospects for the next generation are abysmal with all the regulation and it’s time to make a noise about it. ▍

If only a consultation meant more than tick boxing. One could rant on.