Marine and Coastal Access Bill [HL]

My Lords, I welcome the opportunity to speak on this important Bill. In doing so, I declare an interest as a member of the Salmon & Trout Association and the British Association for Shooting and Conservation and as a supporter of the Deveron, Bogie and Isla Rivers Trust. For most of my life, I have been a keen game angler, so I find this afternoon’s discussion way above my head, as I am a simple fisherman. I wish briefly to raise the subject of the coastal waters of the east coast of Scotland and the various threats to marine life, migratory fish and other wildlife in that region. I believe that my comments also relate to many other rivers and their estuarial and coastal waters in England and Wales but, having fished for well over 30 years on the river Deveron on the east coast of Scotland and having gained some knowledge of that river, my comments will be based primarily on my experience of that region in the north-east of Scotland. The river Deveron rises in the heather-clad Cabrach hills and flows steadily through mainly rolling agricultural land and is joined by the rivers Isla and Bogie on its journey to the North Sea at Banff in the lower part of the Moray Firth. In the past, the Deveron was well known not only as a world-class sea trout river, but also for her substantial summer and autumn runs of grilse and salmon. The Moray Firth is a spectacular ecosystem. Indeed, it is a marine super-system, rich in wildlife including whales, porpoises, bottlenose dolphins and a wide array of smaller creatures and seabirds. It is, or used to be, a rich feeding ground and the home ports of many fishing fleets stretched from the north of Inverness to Peterhead and Fraserburgh. These days, much of that fishing industry has sadly gone. Into the firth flow some of the great rivers of Scotland including the mighty Spey and the Beauly. Migratory fish pass through the firth on their journey south to the Tay, the Tweed and other great rivers on the eastern seaboard of England. On the subject of sea trout, I can do no better than quote from a paper produced in 2005 by various experts in that field, including Scotland’s network of fisheries trusts, RAFTS, which covers 90 per cent of the country. Those trusts have more than 50 biologists and scientists working to enhance and restore fish stocks. Since that paper was written, sea trout stocks have declined even further, and the species should be viewed as being at serious risk. Indeed, on a prime lower beat of the river Deveron, the annual sea trout catch plunged from 268 in 1985 to 147 in the 2000 season, completely collapsed in 2003 to 14, and was 33 last season. Many of the fish are so thin that they resemble pipe cleaners. The paper is called Observations on sea-trout in saltwater in Scotland and beyond. "““In saltwater sea-trout are opportunistic and often voracious feeders … Sand eels are a staple part of their diet and it is certainly likely that relatively poor marine survival of sea-trout in Scotland over the past three or four years is possibly due to some extent to the declining availability of this vital prey species as a result of higher sea surface temperatures and commercial fishing pressure … Sea-trout are subject to predation by a wide range of animals including other fish, fish-eating birds, dolphins and seals. As seal numbers burgeon in Scotland, the inshore feeding habits of sea-trout make them particularly vulnerable … There is little doubt that seals could have a substantial impact on both sea-trout and salmon smolt runs””." Further evidence of the demise of sand eel stocks, as touched on briefly by the noble Lord, Lord Moran, comes from Dr Richard Alderson as reported in the Salmon Farm Monitor in December 2005. I quote: "““The North Sea sand eel fishery has now closed but until it closed upwards of 800,000 tonnes of sand eels were being taken each year, for at least the past 20 years … The depletion of sand eels by industrial fishing is directly linked to the gradual decline over the same period of both wild salmon and sea-trout. When smolts leave their freshwater environment to go to sea, they do so in late April/May when there will be the greatest abundance of sand eels there for them to eat. If there are no sand eels, or not enough sand eels, then these wild fish starve to death or are eaten by something larger than they are””." In conclusion, I hope that I have demonstrated that enormous damage has been done over the past years by man to this wonderful eco-system. Through this Bill, we now have a golden opportunity to strive to improve the situation and to build for the future. I will ask the Minister three brief questions. First, what steps are Her Majesty’s Government intending to take to enhance and improve the population of sand eels in the coastal waters of eastern Scotland? Secondly, will they consider the creation of coastal conservation areas for sand eels and other food chain elements? Thirdly, bearing in mind that sport fishing for salmon and sea trout on the east coast Scottish rivers contributes considerably and vitally to the local rural economy and that the main predator of such fish is the seal, what action, if any, are the Government or the Scottish Executive taking to control the seal population to sustainable levels and what do they intend to do in the future? I support the Bill. I think it is an excellent Bill, but it needs to have real teeth. To do nothing is not an option and it would be unforgivable to let this opportunity to repair the damage of the past, done by man, slip through the net.