MSP & MP Meet Scottish Fisheries Minister

Alex Salmond MP and Stewart Stevenson MSP yesterday held a meeting with Scottish Fisheries Minister Ross Finnie at Pentland House. Alex Salmond had called for the meeting to discuss a number of serious issues currently impacting on the Scottish pelagic fishing industry which he does not feel are being adequately or effectively addressed by the Scottish Executive.

In setting the agenda for the meeting, Alex Salmond took the opportunity to address a wide range of fishing industry issues, as well as discussing several important constituency cases of serious importance to the broader industry. The parliamentarians also raised the question of funding for the continued provision of fishing related training at Banff & Buchan College in Fraserburgh.

Commenting, Alex Salmond said:

“The Minister assures me that he has been having consultations with the industry, however, I was pleased to note that he has not ruled out my suggestion that he holds a pelagic conference to identify the best way forward for the sector, and I will continue to apply pressure for that proposal to be realized.

“The Minister has also indicated that he shares my conviction that Banff & Buchan College should be adequately funded to continue the provision of fishing related training. The fishing navigation course, in particular, was one that he agreed that support must be made available for - especially when aligned to the broader concepts of merchant navy navigation which would also open up other sources of funding.”

Stewart Stevenson added:

“It is absolutely imperative that the pelagic industry are given the opportunity to meet with ministers because, as well as dealing with contentious issues of the recent past, it is important to establish a secure future for the industry. If we fail to do that, there will be no industry.

“It is clear that the Scottish Executive shares our concerns on the subject of individually tradable quotas, which is very welcome news for the Scottish industry – having observed the devastating effect on the fishing industry south of the border where much of the important quota is now in foreign hands.”