Candidates urged to back Scotland’s marine areas
Politicians from around the country will take part in a public online debate tonight (April 8) on sustainability and the marine environment.
Chaired by environmental journalist Rob Edwards, the event will enable Scottish Parliamentary candidates to share their parties’ policies and respond to questions from the public on issues such as climate change and fisheries.
Representatives of the Scottish National Party, Scottish Labour, Scottish Conservatives, Scottish Green Party, Scottish Liberal Democrats, Reform UK Scotland and Women For Equality Scotland are included in the event organised by marine charity Open Seas on behalf of the Our Seas coalition, a group of more than 100 community groups, businesses and national organisations.
According to the Scottish Marine Assessment 2020, many hectares of habitats around Scotland’s coasts have been lost in the last 10 years alone. These declines have been significant on the West Coast where the Argyll marine region has lost more than half of its known flame shell reefs and 35 per cent of its serpulid aggregations.
Ailsa McLellan, coordinator of Our Seas, said: ‘Scotland’s inshore waters were protected by a three-mile limit on bottom trawling until 1984, its removal, plus the industrialisation of much of the fishing fleet, has resulted in a hidden biodiversity crisis on our doorsteps. Bottom towed fishing gear now has legal access to over 95 per cent of our inshore waters. It is incumbent on politicians to examine the statistics on habitat loss, declining numbers of fishermen, and the potential capacity of our inshore habitats to absorb significant amounts of carbon, and to make decisions that benefit the majority of the Scottish people.
The debate will be online, 7pm-8.30pm BST tonight and streamed on the YouTube Our Seas channel. Sign up at http://bit.ly/marine-hustings-SP21 .