Dave Thompson MSP

Dave Thompson, SNP MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch has submitted his own response to the extended consultation on Marine Protected Areas, which closed on the 9th of August.

Scottish Ministers extended the consultation following requests from a number of stakeholders concerning the implementation of the new orders, now scheduled for 1st of November.

In his submission Mr Thompson said: “I believe that the excluded areas for prawn trawlers be shrunk to the absolute minimum required protecting the marine features and therefore limiting the negative effects the current proposals will have on trawling and fishing livelihoods in the region".

Following on from this, Mr Thompson had this to say: “I don’t think it is unreasonable to expect a balance to be struck between the needs of fishermen, particularly trawlermen, and environment protection. The latter I accept is vitally important, but not at the expense of seriously damaging the local area which relies so heavily on fishing.

A highly unsatisfactory and possible outcome from the current proposals would be that Scotland’s coastal communities suffer unfairly, therefore I will be working with fisherman to, hopefully, find a way of ameliorating the proposals, which will be put before the Rural Affairs, Climate Change and Environment Committee in September”.