Scottish Parliament’s Rural Affairs & Islands Committee recently completed a follow-up inquiry into the implementation of the Rural Economy & Connectivity Committee session 5 report recommendations for salmon farming in Scotland.
As part of the inquiry, the Committee acknowledged the benefits that wrasse as cleaner fish may have for the salmon industry, however it recognised that these benefits can only be achieved through careful management of the environmental implications and sustainable use of cleaner fish stocks. The final report made 3 recommendations on cleaner fish use:
– RECOMMENDATION 26: The Committee endorses the ECCLR recommendations on cleaner fish and agrees that there is an urgent need for an assessment of future demand as well as all associated environmental implications of the farming, fishing and use of cleaner fish;
– RECOMMENDATION 27: The Committee welcomes the Scottish Government’s commitment to “assess whether management measures are appropriate and proportionate to the current and anticipated future levels of sustainable wild wrasse fishing in Scotland” as part of its Fish Health Framework. It would urge the Scottish Government to complete 63 Rural Affairs and Islands Committee Follow-up inquiry into salmon farming in Scotland, 1st Report, 2025 (Session 6) this assessment as a matter of urgency;
– RECOMMENDATION 28; The Committee strongly recommends that the Scottish Government consider the need for regulation of cleaner fish fishing to preserve wild stocks and avoid negative knock on impact in local ecosystems. (see paragraph 249) The Committee welcomes the recent developments in industry breeding programmes as it is aware of the long period required for wrasse to reach sexual maturity. It also welcomes the potential for international cooperation and knowledge sharing on this issue.
Although SIFT welcomed the Committee’s recommendations, we remain concerned that the protections for wild wrasse already in place in parts of the English inshore waters are still absent in Scotland, and that the under-regulated fishery currently operating in Scotland – where even the voluntary measures are audited by the aquaculture industry – are having substantial negative effects on wrasse stocks. There is also simply not the data to establish whether this fishery is in any sense sustainable. SIFT has long-advocated for the development and implementation of a Fishery Management Plan for all wrasse species fished in Scottish waters, which as a minimum would include the closure of wrasse fishing in all relevant Special Areas of Conservation and Marine Protected Areas and the closure of the fishery during the breeding season (1st April to 31st August inclusively, each year).
