Parliament passes Aquaculture and Fisheries Bill – Fisheries Management Scotland

The Aquaculture and Fisheries (Scotland) Bill was passed by Parliament on Wednesday the 15^th May, following the Stage 3 debate.

Dr Alan Wells, Policy and Planning Director for the Association of Salmon Fishery Boards (ASFB) commented, “ASFB welcome the passing of the Aquaculture and Fisheries Bill. We are supportive of the principles behind the good governance requirements in the Bill – the ASFB Code of Good Practice for DSFBs is designed to ensure that DSFBs operate to consistent standards of governance across Scotland. We will work closely with Marine Scotland to ensure that clear guidance is provided to DSFBs to enable them to effectively discharge the additional duties arising from the Bill.

“We continue to stress the need for a carcass tagging system which uses individually numbered, recorded tags. This is absolutely fundamental to ensuring that the system is fit for purpose and without numbered tags, wider benefits, such as minimising the market for illegally taken fish would be lost.

“On aquaculture, we are encouraged by the placing of farm management agreements and farm management statements on a statutory footing and we support the provisions relating to tracing fish farm escapes and the inclusion of technical standards and training for the use of fish farm equipment. In common with a wide cross-section of stakeholders we are disappointed that the Scottish Government has not moved on the issue of sea lice data publication. However, we note the Minister’s commitment to keep this issue under review, and we are committed to engaging positively and constructively on this, and other outstanding issues, through the Ministerial Group for Sustainable Aquaculture. ”