Two year campaign pays dividends

After two years of constant letter writing and email campaigns; Ross Finnie, the Scottish fishing minister, finally got round to inviting the Scottish SACN and the Scottish Federation of Sea Anglers to a meeting with the Scottish executive to discuss our goals

In attendance was John Brown, Head of tourism and Frank Strang, Head of fisheries. RSA attendees were Ian Burrett representing the SACN and Steve Bastion and Barry Scholes from the SFSA

Steve Bastion SFSA spoke about the economics, Ian Burrett SACN  spoke about RSA needs and fish stocks, Barry Scholes  SFSA spoke about Social Inclusion meeting.

We went into a meeting looking for the promise of an economic survey and came out with much more as the two executive members promised RSA inclusion in many of the decision making committees.

This is fantastic news as it means for the first time, RSA has political identity in Scotland, and we will be involved as stakeholders in stock management decisions. I am aware we will be facing a group of commercial fishermen similar to the Sea Fishing Committees  in England but it is a start, and for our first meeting, I would consider it a result.

Below is the letter from the executive:

Reply from the Scottish exec. 10.8.06

Thank you for coming to see us last week. I thought we had a good discussion. John (who as you will probably know has just departed on leave) and I appreciated in particular the presentations you made. They had clearly been prepared very carefully, drawing on contributions from a wide range of sea anglers and others. Thank you for all your efforts.

The starting point of our discussion was the scale and importance of sea angling in Scotland. We agreed that much else flows from that issue. We were very interested in the figures which you put on the table. As you yourself said, these were, in the absence of any firmer data, built up from a range of different sources. Whilst the estimates are valuable in their own right, they could usefully be supplemented by a more systematic analysis. We proposed that we should commission a study into the economic impact of the sector in Scotland. Whilst this is something which we would expect the Executive to commission (and finance), we are very keen that we draw on your expertise in drawing up the terms of reference and guiding the study.

We hope to be able to let you see within the next week or two a draft of the terms of reference and look forward to working with you to ensure that we produce robust, credible results. The data you have already provided will be a useful initial input and I have forwarded them to our economic advisers and to Chris Dodds who will be the first point of contact on this. If we are to do the matter justice, then the study may take some time. (We may, for example, decide to conduct it in two phases, with an initial scoping). Nevertheless, we consider it important that we press on now with putting the work in hand.

On , fisheries , you – and in particular Ian – stressed the importance of healthy fish stocks for the future of RSA. We set out how the new Inshore Fisheries Groups will function, stressing in particular the overall purpose of encouraging local discussion and decision-making. We explained that part of the structure will be a formal requirement on IFGs to consult key stakeholders, including, explicitly, sea anglers. The Executive would expect to see evidence of this participation as management proposals are taken forward. We explained that this issue could be looked at in the context of the review of the Scottish Inshore Fisheries Advisory Group, which is underway and to which we invited you to contribute (as you know the contact here is Rob Roberts). From our point of view, the key will be to make the new structures work locally (starting with the IFGs in the south east and Western Isles), with sea anglers demonstrating that they are important players who can and should make contributions to local plans.

Your team stressed several times that RSA is not in competition with commercial fishing. We strongly agree. Both sea angling and sea fisheries stand or fall on sustainable management of the resource. For that reason the actions we are taking under our strategy for sea fisheries – for example developing sustainable stock strategies based on moderate fishing pressure, enhanced enforcement and, in the recent past, significant decommissioning of vessels – will be of benefit to both sectors. Nevertheless, you made some specific points in respect of fish stocks of relevance to sea anglers (what Ian termed his “big 4”). We will look at these in more detail. The only points we would make in the meantime are that, on the common skate, the measures suggested in the DEFRA Fishing Focus are ones which they have discussed with us and which would be pursued on a UK basis. On tope, we here will need to reflect on the implications for ourselves of the outcome of DEFRA’s consultation exercise. More generally, we agreed that it was important that sea angling issues be taken more fully into account in decisions on stock management, in particular the annual negotiations on TACs and quotas. We undertook to ensure that you are invited to participate in stakeholder discussions on these negotiations.

On that theme, John and I welcomed the renewed dialogue which this meeting symbolised. We suggested – and you agreed – that there should be a further meeting in the not too distant future – perhaps once the initial results from the study have emerged.

I am copying to John.

Frank Strang


Many thanks to all those who have contributed with ideas and emails. Also a big well done to Steve who spent days pouring over facts and figures to present to the exec.