FISHING in Dumfries and Galloway faces challenges because offshore windfarms are risking “squeezing out” the sector, according to the region’s MP.
Dumfries and Galloway MP John Cooper raised the issue in Westminster last week, highlighting how floating offshore wind is just one of the sectors affecting the fishing industry.
This is because you cannot fish between offshore turbines, and their seabed infrastructure is another impediment.
During a Westminster Hall debate on fishing, he praised the vital contribution of fishing – mainly centred largely on scallops, lobster and crab worth millions – to coastal communities across Dumfries and Galloway.
He said: “Fisherman are criticised as voracious plunderers – when really they are cautious custodians of the sea.
“It took sterling work from my colleague Finlay Carson MSP to stave off the threat of the loss of livelihood for static gear fishermen along the Solway Coast.
“The clunking fist of the Scottish Government was set to ban them inside a six-mile limit to save berried – egg-bearing – lobster.
“Yet it was the fishermen themselves who spoke up about returning berried lobster to protect the livelihoods of not just themselves, but the next generation of fishermen.”
The latest available data from the House of Commons Library for 2022 shows that the amount of fish landed and recorded at ports in Dumfries and Galloway area represents 0.9 percent of the total amount landed in Scotland.
In monetary terms, the value of fish landed in Dumfries and Galloway ports made up around 0.7 percent of the amount landed in Scotland and as a whole.
There were 3807 tonnes of fish landed in Dumfries and Galloway ports in 2022, with a value of £4.5m.
In Scotland, the figure was 424,000 tonnes, with a total value of £618m.
Brexit has been blamed for creating problems for the fishing industry.
However, Mr Cooper said: “Brexit could yet deliver a sea of opportunity to our fishermen, for if you spend time at the quaysides and pierheads of Kirkcudbright, Garlieston, Port William, Stranraer, Portpatrick – you will not hear any clamour to return to the hated Common Fisheries Policy of distant and faceless Brussels.
“Fishing is food security, and so it is terrifying to hear in some quarters of this pivotal industry’s quotas being touted as a mere bargaining chip as this government kow-tows to Europe.
“War could not choke off our fish suppers. Let’s make sure legislation doesn’t either.”
