The Scottish Government is being urged to make a “simple but significant contribution” to tackling climate change by introducing new protections for sea lochs.

“SIFT claims that the cod box closure has done – and will do – nothing to rebuild Clyde cod stocks, and that only technical measures to reduce the whitefish bycatch in the Nephrops fishery will help cod to recover. It says the case for the closure is ‘indefensible’.”

“Two reports looking into the economic impacts of Scotland’s salmon farming industry were published this winter, but with contrasting conclusions.
Here we explore the findings from both, to help you decide.”

The Sustainable Inshore Fisheries Trust (SIFT) has formally challenged the scientific basis of the Scottish Government’s proposed Sea Fish (Prohibition on Fishing) (Firth of Clyde) Order 2026, warning that the measures are unlikely to recover cod stocks and risk further harm to parts of the fishing sector.

A new study states that Scotland’s farmed salmon sector is “failing to pay its way – with overstated benefits, underestimated costs, and substantial public subsidies” masking its true economic and environmental footprint.

SIFT is pleased to be supporting research into the vulnerability of carbon sequestered in marine sediments to disturbance by seabed-contacting mobile fishing gears. Working closely with the Blue Carbon Academy at St Andrews University and one of SIFT’s long term funders, we have enabled a Masters in Research project to begin in 2025. The research

On 2nd December, SIFT and Wildfish wrote to Mairi Gougeon MSP – Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands – regarding the recently published ‘Independent analysis of the true economic impact of salmon farming in Scotland’. 

MSP Mon­ica Len­non and the Sustainable Inshore Fisheries Trust have writ­ten to min­is­ters demand­ing emer­gency action to pro­tect global warm­ing fight­ing car­bon stores in sea lochs.

Today an independent report commissioned by SIFT and Wildfish, and authored by two leading analysts, was published which reports that headline estimates of the economic impacts of Scottish salmon farming exaggerate economic benefits by focussing on gross rather than net effects and disregarding counterfactuals.

Charles Millar, executive director of the Sustainable Inshore Fisheries Trust, said they wanted to see “practical changes to protect our marine environment”.
As amendments are debated he said that “amongst other things, MSPs will be offered the chance to protect Scotland’s most sensitive sea lochs, which act as exceptional marine carbon