Sustainable Seas for All - a consultation on Scotland’s first marine bill

You may be aware that a Scottish Government consultation on proposals for Scotland’s first marine bill is currently underway and will end on 6 October. A series of public events have been organised at locations around the country and further events in Skye, Ullapool and Eyemouth have been confirmed.

3-5 pm Friday September 26, Fishermen’s Mission, Harbour Road, Eyemouth
4 - 6 pm Monday September 29, Sàbhal Mòr Ostaig, Sleat, Isle of Skye
10 - 12 pm Tuesday September 30, The Macphail Centre, Mill Street, Ullapool

Proposals for Scotland’s first Marine Bill include:

A new marine planning system and streamlining of the licensing system
Measures to ensure a viable future for Scotland’s traditional and new marine industries
Creation of Marine Scotland – a new body to act as champion of Scotland’s seas
Improved conservation for Scotland’s marine wildlife

Now is the chance to have your say on the future of Scotland’s seas.  Scottish Government invite you to a public meeting to hear about and discuss proposals for Scotland’s First Marine Bill.

The consultation document is available at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/marinebill and will be available at the meeting.  Hard copies can be obtained in advance by contacting (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

I attended the Dumfries event and was pretty surprised at the total lack of knowledge shown from the officials regarding the RSA sector.

It was however encouraging when three of the opening questions from the audience did in fact ask them questions about angling (being straight the officials were genuinely surprised).

Both during and after the meeting Ian Burret and I did our best to try and encourgae them to learn more about Sea Angling.

On this basis I would encourage anyone attending these other meetings (in fact I would say its vitally important), to ask them sensible and relevent questions about Sea Angling.

The classic question is obviously “due to the numbers participating and the economic spend of the RSA sector will Recreational Sea Anglers be guarranteed a seat on any local committees that are going to be formed”

In short, with these major changes in the pipeline it is not the time to be sitting about in the background particularly when we are pushing at an open door and the people running the show are looking for input from sensible people who do actually have some idea of what happens around our coasts.

Cheers
Stuart C

Well said, the consultation is there for consultation. No use complaining later when none of our views are mentioned.

Yep you can’t complain if you don’t get up and speak.