The Our Seas alliance is calling for a ‘modernised’ three-mile limit (Steve Parsons/PA)
An alliance of more than 100 organisations is demanding that trawlers be banned from fishing within three miles of Scotland’s coasts.
Members of the Our Seas coalition insisted that a “modernised” three-mile limit is “not a radical measure” and would benefit both the environment and coastal communities.
With talks taking place between the Scottish Government and the Scottish Greens over a formal co-operation agreement, the group is pressing both parties to consider the issue.
While there had previously been a ban on trawling the seabed within three miles of the coast, this was repealed by the UK Government in 1984 – with Ailsa McLellan, Our Seas coalition co-ordinator, claiming this “led to what academics called ‘ecological meltdown’”.
Credit:
Robert F. Bukaty/AP/File
Some House of Lords members (the UK’s upper House of Parliament) believe the bill should go further and include certain invertebrates. It would recognize that all shellfish feel pain.
Speaking during the House of Lords debate in June, Baroness Janet Fookes said she was “shocked by some of the treatment of animals, such as lobsters, crabs and squid, in the way they have been stored and, very often, killed.”
Maisie Tomlinson, co-director of Crustacean Compassion, a campaign group that lobbies for welfare rights for decapod crustaceans, said that lobsters are undoubtedly sentient beings. She said studies by professor Robert Ellwood at Queen’s University in Belfast tested the theory and proved that crustaceans retain a memory of a painful experience. These studies also examined whether decapods (shrimp, crab, lobster) had the capacity to weigh competing courses of action to avoid electric shock “and they did,” she said.
Reviving Scotland′s ′disappearing′ marine life with no-take zones | Global Ideas | DW dw.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from dw.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Big business including oil and renewable energy, farming, fishing, finance and whisky dominated Scotland Office ministers’ meetings last year, analysis by The Ferret has found. We looked at all external meetings logged in 2020 by Alister Jack, Secretary of State for Scotland, UK Government ministers for Scotland David Duguid and Iain Stewart, as well as Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross, who was deputy Secretary of State until he resigned in May that year. Analysis showed that almost 90 per cent (168 of 188) of these meetings were with industry bodies and business groups. Scottish Office ministers only met with two charities last year, according to their diaries – The Trussell Trust and the Marine Conservation Society UK.
New Highland Clearances: Firm warn warn over anti-business feeling that could drive people away heraldscotland.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from heraldscotland.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.