Scottish Salmon Producers’ Organisation
Shades of Green BY HAMISH MACDONELL
The platform thrashed out by the SNP and the Scottish Greens is dangerously vague
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T’S all in the detail. Or, rather, in the case of the SNP-Green deal, perhaps it isn’t. The coalition that isn’t, announced last month, was hardly unexpected. It had been trailed for weeks as the two parties conducted an elaborate dance, partly in the public glare and partly away from it. But it was only when we got to see the actual text of the deal that it was possible to work out what it could mean and this is where the detail – or the lack of it – is so important. There is almost one whole page in the agreement devoted to aquaculture and another focused on protecting the marine environment. Much of the language is of the “motherhood and apple pie” variety. Take this, from the opening paragraph on aquaculture, which it says “must operate within environmental limits and with social licence and ensure there is a thriving marine ecosystem for future generations”. It would be difficult to find anybody who wouldn’t agree with that. However, it is so vague and so open to interpretation that it allows the Greens to pursue one agenda while their partners in government pursue another. One parliamentarian’s “thriving marine ecosystem” is another parliamentarian’s missed opportunity. And what are the environmental limits that salmon farmers should operate within? Our farmers already work within probably the tightest and most robust regulatory regime in the world. Is this sufficient or does this line allow the Greens to pursue even tougher regulation? It is simply not clear – but perhaps that was the aim. After all, when a deal of this sort is done between two parties with divergent views on aquaculture, there has to be a fudge and that’s what’s happened. The language has to be so vague that both parties can sign up to it. The problem is that this vagueness creates gaps and potential avenues that some of the more vociferous and fanatical Greens could exploit. Take the next section, the one on marine protection. At the heart of this part is a commitment to establish “highly protected marine areas” (HPMAs) where no aquaculture or commercial fishing will be allowed and that will cover 10% of the seas around Scotland. Again, there is a crucial absence of detail. If that 10% area is made up of oceanic sites, well off the coasts or is mainly focused on the north and east coasts of Scotland, then there will be no clash with salmon farming. But what if the politicians decide to designate areas where there are
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Above: Salmon farm on Loch Harport, Isle of Skye, Scotland
already salmon farms as highly protected areas? Do the salmon farms have to move? Will they have to be closed down? Will alternative sites be found for them? The reality is that we just don’t know. There is detail in this agreement and the detail comes from the SNP end of the deal. There is a clear commitment to implement the regulatory reform agenda for planning consents that the SNP championed in its election manifesto. The agreement also includes a promise to bring forward a response to the Salmon Interactions Working Group, which is hardly a surprise as that has been on the cards for months. What appears to have happened here is that the SNP has gone into negotiations with a clear, thought-out agenda for salmon farming that has been worked up over months. It is an agenda designed to deliver a salmon farming sector that is both sustainable and successful, growing in partnership with the remote rural communities it sustains. The Greens, in contrast, went into the negotiations with an extraordinarily vague and ill-informed manifesto commitment to end all
www.fishfarmermagazine.com
13/09/2021 15:53:34
