New appointment to help rescue Clyde fish stocks

COAST, as we all know, has been working for years to save marine life in our seas from extinction. It set up the No Take Zone in Lamlash Bay that has allowed scallops and fin-fish to start breeding again, but has not yet managed to be heard over the louder voice of the trawler fleet, whose determination to keep fishing until there is nothing left is fully supported by the Government. But, following a symposium held by COAST in 2010, a new body called SIFT (Sustainable Inshore Fisheries Trust) was set up, and two years later Alex Watson Crook has been appointed as a dedicated Firth of Clyde Project Co-ordinator.

The job Alex faces (with relish, it must be added) is to develop and implement SIFT’s sustainable fishery management plan for the Firth of Clyde. She is brilliantly qualified to do so, having been professionally active in fisheries management for more than 15 years. As she says, ‘I have worked with fishermen since I graduated in Applied Marine Biology in 1997. I have experience of working with many of the partners we’ll need to engage with.’ But she is clear, too, about how difficult that engagement may be in the developing crisis that lies ahead.

Fish stocks are dangerously low in the Clyde. Alex notes that ‘Some 72 per cent of the remaining Clyde stock is made up of whiting, of which around 85 per cent are below the legal minimum landing size.’ She distinguishes, however, between the effect of the big trawlers and the smaller, traditional creel and line fishermen.

SIFT was set up through dogged work by Howard Wood of COAST, Bob Younger of Fish Legal, Alistair Sinclair of Clyde Creelers, Andrew Wallace from the River and Fisheries Trust and Charles Miller. It represents a wide range of stakeholders whose interests dovetail with plans for better management of Clyde waters. SIFT is drawing up plans to establish a large inshore reserve that would ban trawlers but allow traditional creel and line fishing. The Government has only recently acknowledged that the interests of all marine stakeholders must be involved if we are to turn around the fortunes of the Clyde.

COAST finds itself in a bigger game than it ever envisaged when it was planning the Lamlash No Take Zone. Governments deal with large-scale institutions rather than individuals and small local bodies, so a step forward into the larger field of policy-making has been an essential one. That COAST played such a pivotal role in helping set up this new national body, SIFT, is something that Arran can be proud of. Support from the people of Arran has been hugely important in the development of COAST, and the continuance of this support and interest is vital. Hard work must continue if we are to ensure that in the years to come, the seas around Arran will be healthy and fish will be plentiful – not to throw overboard and waste, but to value as a natural food, locally provided. This need affects every one of us, so please keep an eye on what COAST is doing, and support them in any way you can.

See the current newsletter on the COAST website.

The SIFT website is at http://www.sift-uk.org.