Fisheries

Stranraer Oyster Festival has been hailed as an ‘incredible success’ by organisers. More than 18,000 people attended the community-led event, which is now one of Scotland’s biggest food festivals, a higher attendance than the previous event in 2019 despite extreme weather warnings and heavy rain.

Stranraer Oyster Festival is inviting contenders to battle it out for the title of Scotland’s Shucking Champion. Taking place on Saturday 3rd September 2022 at the popular Festival, the Scottish Shucking Championships returns after a two year Covid-enforced break.

The importance of water safety awareness was marked by Community Safety Minister Ash Regan on World Drowning Prevention Day last week.

Work to reform Scotland’s aquaculture regulatory processes is underway with the first meeting of a new strategic advisory group.

You can now share your views on the government’s long-term vision of what our natural environment needs to look like in 2045 in order to reverse biodiversity decline and protect our environment for the future. 

The consultation contains a series of proposed outcomes setting out what needs to be done, and the conditions that must be in place, in order to achieve success.

Scottish Parliament have passed the Good Food Nation bill after a Stage 3 debate.

Marine Scotland Science have published the Scottish Shellfish Farm Production Survey 2021. The publication details statistics on the employment, production and value of shellfish from Scottish Shellfish Farms. It is structured to follow industry trends within the mussel, Pacific oyster, native oyster, queen scallop and scallop species sectors. Some statistics are given for the 10-year period 2012-2021. 

New funding of £500,000 will support the development of wild salmon conservation measures.

The money will be used for two projects, the National Adult Sampling Plan which provides crucial data on wild salmon stock and  the development of a standardised fisheries management plan template which can be used by all the fisheries management areas in Scotland.

Scotland’s Chief Statistician has published the salmon and sea trout fishery statistics updated to include the 2021 season. 

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and other businesses will be given new opportunities to allow them to raise finance by securing funds against largely untapped assets like vehicles, plant and machinery or whisky stores through The Moveable Transactions (Scotland) Bill.