S4M-09836 Inshore Fisheries

The Presiding Officer (Tricia Marwick): The next item of business is a debate on motion S4M-09836, in the name of Richard Lochhead, on inshore fisheries.

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Stewart Stevenson (Banffshire and Buchan Coast) (SNP): The most interesting speech so far has come from Rob Gibson, who illustrated a general point when he said that female langoustines should have their tails clipped and be thrown back but the males should be culled because they are utterly dispensable. I heard in his voice the influence of my wife, who says, “You men; you’re all useless.” The same is obviously true in the shellfish sector. One male shellfish in an area might be enough; the rest we can eat. If only conservation was so simple, but it absolutely is not.

Of course, the hunter gatherers that are represented in our inshore and offshore fishing communities are, par excellence, the conservationists who are most committed to ensuring that there is a future for fishermen and, through that, for their communities. Sons and daughters of fishermen will have a future in their communities only if today’s fishermen and the rules that Government surrounds our industry with promote sustainability. When we see other species prospering, we know that the stocks of food that they depend on are doing well, and therefore that there are stocks for our fishermen. There is no future for the communities around our coastline unless our inshore fishing succeeds.

Of necessity, we all have to eat in order to live, and fish and all the products of the sea are a great part of that. On Saturday, I was at a 92nd birthday party in the community cafe in Strichen, not too far from the sea, and I had the most wonderful huge, plump, tasty, well-prepared haddock. However, the inshore fisheries are delivering a great deal as well. I navigate my way round Scotland by thinking where I first tasted various foods. I had my first razor clams in Harris and I first tasted a scallop in Oban. I am sure that we can all think about places in that way. I first ate a fleukie at Achmelvich in Sutherland. I speared it with my own little bit of fence wire with a bit of string tied on to a cane, by standing on it, and then took it back to be cooked that night. I was a tourist inshore fisherman.

There are other species that have not been mentioned in the debate. Eels and elvers would be an example. They are absolutely wonderful additions to our food stocks, as are mackerel. I have fished for mackerel, standing on the shore and seeing the sea bubbling with sprats and knowing that the mackerel would be there behind them. With just a few barbed hooks on the end of the line and a bit of silver paper attached to each hook, I could bring out six mackerel with a single cast by throwing it into the mêlée.

However, our inshore fishermen and the industry fish in a more complex and properly regulated environment, not just that of the casual tourist. Rhoda Grant talked about the links between our industry, the provision of local products and the sustaining of local food-based industries, including our hotels and restaurants, and she is absolutely right. That is what brings people to our communities—local food delivered from local inshore fisheries. It is therefore important that we have a regulatory structure that supports that.

The Government did a particularly important thing in December 2013, when we brought into force a new regulation that protects the waters that are essential for good inshore stocks. At the end of the day, the bottom of the food chain, which creates food for others, is often made up of filter feeders that need good, pure water to prosper, and mud that has within it a good biological load that has not been contaminated by industrial pollution or sewage. The regulation that was introduced was the first in the UK. It replaced the European shellfish waters directive and was an important part of what our Government has been doing.

On the motion and the amendment that are before us, I will pick from the Labour amendment first. It recognises the vital role of inshore fisheries to local economies. Ye cannae possibly disagree with that; it is self-evidently correct. They make an economic and cultural contribution because when our communities are economically vibrant, they are also culturally vibrant.

In my final 90 seconds, I want to talk about one or two other things. We have not heard much about the mussels, winkles, and cockles that can also be gathered on our shores. For that matter, some Scottish products can augment things. Traditionally, top-notch lobsters would be cooked in champagne. I will propose something even better, which is silver birch wine from Highland Wineries. It is pétillant, if not quite as fizzy as champagne.

At £10 a bottle, it is half the price of a cheap bottle of champagne and it has local flavour that is absolutely terrific.

We all have local good practice. The village of Whitehills has the nearest really good fish and chip shop to me, and the shop has its own trawler. The fish are landed so close to the shop that the chef could go on his bicycle and bring them from the boat to the shop. That is the kind of thing that sustains communities and delivers for tourists.

Eating fish is enjoyable on the palate, but Bertie Wooster’s man Jeeves used to go away and eat fish because, as his master said, that equipped his brains to engage with the problems that Bertie Wooster faced. Let us all eat a bit more fish. The quality of parliamentary debate would surely benefit.

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