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Aquaculture and Fisheries (Scotland) Bill

The bill will soon be law, but does it do enough to address the issues of fishfarming and Gs?

The Scottish Parliament is about to bring into laws the Aquaculture and Fisheries (Scotland) Bill later this year. After wide consultation, including organisations such asthe Scottish Anglers National Association and the ScottishFederation of Course Angling as well as commercial interests,legislation is to be put in place to deal with Gryodactylus salaris should an out break occur, to tackle parasitic infections in fishfarms i.e. sea lice and to deal with escapee fish.

The main points of the Bill are summarised below, but they do leave many questions unanswered not least of which is whether we need the 'nanny state'to legislate on how we fish. I understand the Chamber in Holyrood was all but empty during the debate, it is rather scary that we could have laws handed down from on high by people who have so little interest in angling that they don't bother to turn out for anything other to vote the way they are told.

Part 1 of the Bill puts in place measures for: (a) The prevention, control and reduction of parasites in – (i) Fish farms.(ii) Shellfish farms. (b) The containment of fish on fish farms. (c) The prevention of escape of fish from fish farms.(d) The recovery of escapee fish.

The measures will require fish farms to maintain records on the above and allow the records and fish farms to be inspected. Much of this part of the Bill is focus on record keeping and the inspection of records. Given the damage done to sea trout stocks and the time it has taken to do anything about the issue the Bill does seem to be a bit toothless. We can only hope that the application of the Bill is carried out in an effective manner rather than as a paper exercise ensuring that sea lice infestations around salmon farms are controlled and the problem of escapee salmon is dealt with.

Part 2 of the Bill puts in place the legislation needed to deal with a Gs out break should this parasite arrive in Scotland. The Bill allows for:

• The creation of barriers in water systems to prevent the movement offish through the system.
• Restrictions on the movement of live fish or fish eggs.
• The treatment of water with chemical agents to eliminate Gs.
• The clearing of fish farms, disinfection of ponds and destruction ofstock.

Sadly this part of the Bill reeks of closing the stable door after the horse has bolted. Fish farms are not presently prevented from importing fish and eggs into this country from infected areas, specifically importing fish and eggs from Norway where Gs has caused havoc for some years now. It makes absolutely no sense what so ever to risk infection of our native stocks by allowing fish and eggs to be brought into Scotland from Norway. Would government allow cattle to be imported from a country that was dealing with a outbreak of foot and mouth? I think not.

Having put in place measures to address two major issues the Bill goes on to make other provisions.Fishing for salmonids with a rod and line, except from a boat, is restricted to the use of one rod which must be held by an angler (which will clip the wings of casting ace Hywel Morgan who has cast with 66 rods at the same time, I'd hate ghillie for him). In the case of non salmonids the Bill makes provision for course fishers, allowing the use of up to four rods at any time.

We will all have to change the bags on our nets when this legislation comes into effect for the Bill makes the use of knotted or metallic mesh illegal. At least we are forewarned of this change, when the same was introduced by the Environment Agency in England it was done with little or know notice, catching out net manufactures and anglers alike. Pike gags are to be banned as are keep nets with knotted or metallic mesh.

The Bill will allow Ministers to apply weekly and annual fishing closures and also provide powers to take action to conserve fresh water species of fish including making certain baits and lures illegal. Maybe this protective measure can be extended for the conservation of trout stocks in Loch Leven which Ministers have pointedly referred to as not protected from cormorant predation by law.

The Bill also makes it illegal to introduce fish or eggs to inland waters. This measure might go someway to stopping certain elements in the angling fraternity from introducing non native species into fisheries in their thoughtless quest to expand the range of their sporting opportunities. The Bill also makes it illegal to use live bait in fishing which again will go some way to preventing the introduction of non native fish such as ruffe which eat the eggs of indigenous species. How these measures will be monitored is another matter, all we can do is be vigilant and report any instances when discovered.

Some of these latter measures have ruffled feathers within different angling interests. For a moment atthe end of the SANA AGM earlier this month it became apparent that there are tensions between game fishing and course fishing interest.

In their response to the bill posted at http://www.sfca.co.uk/policy/billconsultationmspinfo.htm the SFCA take issue with the old practise of netting course fishout of fisheries and urge that a clause be included to conserve all species of fish in Scotland. They may have a point, indeed the authorities on Loch Leven are looking at ways to enhance the population of native perch to provide the cormorants with an alternative food source. I know that a 29lb pike was caught and released on Loch Fitty recently because the managers there accept that such large predators tidy up dead and dieing fish. May beleaving the balance of species as nature intended is a better approach for all parties.

It would be a pity if angling had to resort to more legislation and therefore regulation to resolve interdisciplinary conflicts. This Bill takes us a few more steps closer to being governed by statute than by consensus and local regulations. Aside from dealing with fish farming and Gs maybe we should keep angling more self regulating in keeping with our nature.