The Angling Trust this week welcomed the Marine and Coastal Access Bill, due to be debated in the House of Commons on June 23rd. Representatives from angling’s representative body attended a briefing on the Bill from Fisheries Minister Huw Irranca-Davies last week and held a meeting with Martin Salter, the Labour party’s spokesman on angling. [...]

16th June 2009 Sun shines for Oceans Celebrations at Luce Bay Luce Bay was a busy place at the weekend with 18 organisations involved in Sunday’s World Oceans Celebration at Port William co-ordinated by Solway Firth Partnership and 60 boats and 25 kayaks taking part in the Scottish Sea Angling Conservation Network’s Sharkatag event over [...]

Fishery ministers from the 27 European Union (EU) nations have begun talks on how to modify near 25-year old quota policies on fish stocks preservation, one of the key proposals is the the installation of on-board monitoring cameras in return for bigger quotas in a new quota regime altogether. Denmark has won support from several [...]

New research to keep Scotland on track to meet ambitious renewables targets in Scottish waters whilst at the same time recognising the need to protect Scotland’s unique marine ecosystem and the many habitats and species which are found there. Marine Scotland has announced three projects looking at the potential impact of marine renewables on Scotland’s [...]

The competing demands on the Solway Firth will be the focus of a meeting of the Scottish Parliament’s Rural Affairs and Environment Committee in Kirkcudbright on Monday 22 June. The committee will hold its first ever meeting in the town to gather evidence as part of its ongoing scrutiny of the Marine (Scotland) Bill. In [...]

LABOUR CALLS FOR HALT IN DECLINE OF SHARK NUMBERS As a shark tagging exercise gets underway in the Solway this weekend, Scottish Labour’s Elaine Murray has called for the Scottish Government to halt the serious decline in their numbers. The Scottish Sea Angling Conservation Network will use the exercise to gather data which will assist [...]

From this BBC News item. A Sharkatag event is currently under way in the waters off the Dumfries and Galloway Coast. Organised by the Scottish Sea Angling Conservation Network, it hopes to provide valuable data on shark numbers and behaviour. BBC News Scotland correspondent Lorna Gordon joins a group of anglers in pursuit of an [...]

A report published on 11 June, 2009 by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee has revealed major declines in many UK seabirds since the late 1960s. The report by JNCC – using information from the UK’s Seabird Monitoring Programme – reveals that the UK populations of at least nine of the UK’s 25 species seabird have [...]

According to the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation there is a comprehensive and growing list of conservation measures being spearheaded by the Scottish fleet which include: Two large decommissioning schemes in 2001 and 2003, which has resulted in a 65 per cent reduction in the Scottish whitefish fleet. Further decommissioning schemes, subject to careful analysis of need, [...]