Marine and Coastal Access Bill [HL]

In speaking to this Amendment, which stands in my name and in that of other noble Lords, I need to remind the House that I have, for a good many years, fished for trout, sea trout and particularly salmon, and on occasions have been successful. I have also for a long time been a member of the Salmon and Trout Association. As the noble Duke, the Duke of Montrose, has said, the purpose of this amendment is to place on IFCAs a duty to take account of the conservation needs of fish that migrate from freshwater to seawater and later back again. That duty is in addition to their primary duty to manage sea fisheries in their districts. The amendment would not make IFCAs responsible for the regulation and management of those fish, because that would remain the responsibility of the Environment Agency, but the IFCAs would have to ensure that fishing for sea fish did not threaten the conservation of migratory fish: salmon, sea trout, eels, shad and so on, and I intend to speak about shad in another amendment later today. There are two reasons why I believe the amendment is necessary. First, the Environment Agency acts as the sea fisheries committee in most of the estuaries of the major salmon and sea trout rivers in these islands. This enables the Agency to ensure that salmon and sea trout within the estuary are not targeted by fisheries and by fishermen who claim to be fishing for sea fish, whether deliberately or accidentally. Indeed, methods of fishing that are likely to catch salmon and sea trout can be banned as the law stands. Under the arrangements to be created by the Bill, this will change, and IFCAs will become responsible for managing sea fisheries throughout their districts, including the estuaries of the major rivers, and it will therefore be for IFCAs to take action necessary to protect salmon and sea trout stocks in those estuaries from sea fishery activities. Secondly, migratory fish remain vulnerable to exploitation by sea fisheries well beyond the estuary limits. That applies to sea trout and is particularly so with salmon. At present, the sea fisheries committees have powers to make by-laws to protect salmon and sea trout from that sort of exploitation. The Bill will give IFCAs similar powers, and it is very important that they should make use of them. The Minister may consider that the proposed duty of IFCAs to protect the marine environment already covers migratory fish. That may very well be the case, but I and perhaps other noble Lords would like to see a more explicit duty on the face of the Bill to ensure that IFCAs will take this responsibility very seriously and devote the necessary resources to it. If the Minister cannot go that far, perhaps he would give a very clear assurance that the IFCAs will be left in no doubt that the protection of migratory fish is important to the continuance of those species and that, if necessary, the Secretary of State would use powers of direction to that end.