World Oceans Day
The final item of business is a members’ business debate on motion S3M-5940, in the name of Stuart McMillan, on world oceans day. The debate will be concluded without any question being put.
Motion debated,
That the Parliament recognises World Oceans Day 2010 on 8 June and congratulates the United Nations for designating a day with the aim of improving the health of the world’s oceans; considers that lobbying by the Ocean Project and the World Ocean Network encouraged the UN to officially recognise 8 June as World Oceans Day; acknowledges that there will be events to mark the date across the world and hopes that communities across Scotland may take part or organise their own events; further considers that the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010, Scotland’s first such Act, goes a long way in improving awareness and responsibility for the sustainability of Scotland’s seas and hopes that the events on 8 June will take up this message; hopes that the theme of the day, Our Oceans, Our Responsibility, will be widely spread, and wishes World Oceans Day much success in future years.
17:01
I thank the members who have stayed behind for the debate and the members who signed my motion.
World oceans day is on 8 June. Canada proposed the concept on 8 June 1992 at the earth summit in Rio de Janeiro and the day was celebrated unofficially every year until it was internationally recognised in 2009, when the United Nations declared officially that 8 June every year was to be recognised as world oceans day.
Oceans provide most of the oxygen that we breathe and much of the food that we eat, and help to create many of the medicines that we use to stay healthy. Oceans also provide us with incredible opportunities for recreational activities such as boating, diving and fishing. As we know, waters cover two thirds of the planet’s surface.
It is unfortunate that humans sometimes take the oceans and the seas for granted. As members from one of the most progressive countries in the world, it is our responsibility to recognise the ecological impact that we have on our oceans and to realise the vital role that they play in our lives. I am encouraged by Scotland’s awareness of the situation and I congratulate the Scottish Government on, and commend every member of the Parliament for, the passage of the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010. I also congratulate the members of the United Kingdom Parliament in Westminster on passing their Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009. Those acts are major steps towards helping us to protect the coastal waters of the UK and Scotland. The Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 has provided a framework to manage Scotland’s seas and enforce the laws that are associated with the sustainable development of our waters.
World oceans day encourages groups throughout the world to engage in events to celebrate the world’s oceans and help to increase awareness of the role that our oceans play in everyday life. This year, events that are being held in Scotland to celebrate the day and increase awareness of it include those by the Macduff Marine Aquarium and the Solway Firth Partnership. I hope that an even bigger effort will be made next year to support world oceans day all over the country.
World oceans day encourages sustainable and enjoyable practices for the environment and the oceans in particular. As the Presiding Officer might recall, I initiated in November 2008 the first members’ business debate—and the first debate in the chamber—on the potential economic impact of recreational boating and marine tourism on the Scottish economy. That growing sector of our economy depends almost exclusively on the wellbeing of the world’s oceans and people taking care of them, so Scotland must view world oceans day seriously. It would be prudent for Scotland to support the day zealously, as it strives to protect a vital element of the Scottish economy.
Sailing and responsible recreational boating are some of the most environmentally friendly activities that one can enjoy. A sailboat does not use much fuel and certainly provides an entertaining way to enjoy our waters.
Another wonderful activity to enjoy in our oceans is diving and snorkelling. Five years ago, on a trip to Australia, I went snorkelling off the coast near Cairns. The ocean there was stunning. Members should believe me when I say, after witnessing its beauty in person, that there is no high-definition television on the planet that can do the great barrier reef justice.
World oceans day promotes awareness of what our oceans do for us and encourages us to show them respect. We need to call into question the practices that we as a people undertake, and how we react to man-made disasters such as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill that is currently wreaking havoc in the Caribbean, releasing a reported 1,600 to 13,600 tonnes of oil per day.
It is not the first time that we have inadvertently done serious damage to our planet’s oceans and ocean fauna in accidental oil incidents. In 1989, the Exxon Valdez tanker ran into a reef and spilled an estimated 35,000 tonnes of oil into the waters around Alaska. Although that spill was well down the list of the largest spills, its remote location made it extremely difficult to clean up and it adversely affected all manner of wildlife, resulting in the deaths of thousands of sea creatures in the vicinity.
In a significantly larger incident off the coast of Scotland, the MV Braer ran aground off the coast of the Shetland Islands in 1993, leaking 85,000 tonnes of oil into local waters. Quick action by volunteers in the Shetlands to walk the beaches and collect oiled animals, in combination with extremely stormy weather in the Shetlands at the time, helped to minimise the spill’s impacts. The Braer was also carrying Norwegian Gullfaks crude oil, which is lighter and more biodegradable than typical North Sea oil. Those factors luckily prevented an even bigger disaster from occurring. Given the circumstances, Scotland can consider itself lucky that the ecological impacts were not worse than they were.
The Braer spill is dwarfed by the gargantuan Ixtoc 1 oil spill in 1979 and 1980, which released nearly 500,000 tonnes of oil into the Bay of Campeche in the Gulf of Mexico and took nearly a year to clean up. It is unfortunate that this year’s world oceans day will be celebrated during the largest oil incident in the past 20 years, and one of the most devastating disasters for the ocean and neighbouring ecosystems in recorded history. Millions of people have had their lives affected by the spill, and billions of organisms have been either killed or chased from their native habitat due to its magnitude. As the oil seeps inland into the marshes of the southern United States, it throws off the balance of that delicate ecosystem, which may never be the same.
Such man-made disasters should highlight the importance of world oceans day. I hope that they will bring concern for the oceans to the forefront of our attention. We as a people need to be much more responsible in the way in which we interact with our surroundings. Oceans are a most precious resource, naturally beautiful and full of bounty. It is imperative that we treat them with the respect that they deserve.
17:08
I congratulate Stuart McMillan on securing this debate and organising last week’s Scottish boating alliance reception, which highlighted the contribution of recreational boating to the Scottish economy. I understand that the figure is comparable to that for golf, which came as a surprise to me.
Stuart McMillan’s motion refers to the contribution that the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 can make to improving the health of the seas around Scotland. As a member of the Rural Affairs and Environment Committee, which scrutinised and amended the legislation during its passage through the Parliament, I strongly agree that the 2010 act has the potential to make a significant contribution to Scottish marine health. However, as Scottish Environment LINK’s briefing points out, that will depend on the act being well implemented. As it is brought into force, much will depend on the way in which the duties that are placed on the Scottish ministers and public authorities are exercised. For example, section 5 requires the Scottish ministers to set a number of objectives: economic and social, on the marine ecosystem, and on mitigation of and adaptation to climate change. As Scottish Environment LINK points out, those objectives will need to be reconciled. The various partners in the marine planning partnerships that will be tasked with drawing up regional marine plans will have a range of interests, some of which will be in competition with one another. Work will be required to negotiate a solution that is acceptable to all partners, in so far as that is possible. Passing the bill this year is just the beginning of a process that I believe will continue for many years.
During its passage there was much interest—and rightly so—in the welfare of seals, particularly as the population of the common seal has declined substantially in recent years. The part of the bill dealing with seals received the greatest number of responses from the public during the consultation period.
Sharks, whose populations have also declined significantly, do not enjoy the same level of public affection, unfortunately. They might not look cute and cuddly, but sharks are an important indicator of the health of the seas, as they are at the top of the marine food pyramid. Loss of population among sharks, as predators, can significantly affect the ecosystem.
At least 30 species of shark occur in UK waters. Some are resident off our coasts all the time; others are migratory. Half of British shark species appear on the red list of the IUCN—the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources—which assesses species’ risk of extinction. Sharks are vulnerable, because their development, both before and after birth, is slow, meaning that they mature very slowly and grow slowly. They also have few young, so they are highly susceptible to overfishing, either for their meat and fins or as bycatch.
Organisations such as the Scottish Sea Angling Conservation Network believe that more effort should be made by Government and fisheries managers to protect shark species. The network’s argument for that requires to be backed up by evidence, which is why the SSACN has organised the Scottish shark tagging programme. The next event, Sharkatag 2010, takes place during the weekend of 18 June in the western Solway.
Last year’s event in the Solway tagged 222 sharks, which at first seems a reasonable figure, although the majority were immature females, with a small number of larger females—and the male breeding stock that would have been expected was absent across the region. In addition, only a handful of rays were tagged. Twenty years ago, mature rays and tope were plentiful in that part of the Solway. The good news for humans in Dumfries and Galloway—in contrast to the sharks—was that, of the 175 sea anglers who registered for the event, 90 per cent came from outwith the region and over a third from outside Scotland, so the event was shown to contribute to the local economy.
I welcome the focus that world oceans day brings to our consideration of the marine environment. Like others, I believe that the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 has the potential to improve the health of Scotland’s seas significantly, but I also believe that we have a lot of work to do to achieve that improvement—not least through enhancing the protection of vulnerable marine species such as sharks and rays.
17:12
I congratulate Stuart McMillan on securing this evening’s debate. Scotland has an enduring and obvious relationship with the sea. I will not rehearse all the reasons of geography and history that have made that the case, but it is worth giving one single illustration of the economic importance of the sea to Scotland: our shipbuilding industry, which could once boast that a third of the ships afloat in the world had been built on the Clyde.
I represent 13 inhabited islands and it is only too obvious to me what the sea means to Scotland. A high proportion of my constituents have either served across the globe in the merchant navy or are fishermen, or they work in fish processing, on ferries, or in the tourism industry in and around the sea. Conversely, as in many other coastal communities, people in the islands are only too aware of the terrible power of the sea. Taking one famous and terrible example, His Majesty’s yacht Iolaire sank barely a couple of miles from Stornoway harbour in the early hours of new year’s day, 1919. With the loss of more than 200 men, most of them soldiers returning home from the trenches of the first world war, the tragedy remained for many decades an event so painful in Lewis and Harris that it was barely discussed.
I mention that because it goes a long way towards explaining why people in places such as the Western Isles often have a realistic, rather than romantic, view of the sea. I also mention it to stress that the sea is not just an ecosystem that is vital to life on earth—I apologise for the word “just” in that sentence, now that I read it, considering the enormity of what it says. We need also to recognise the importance of the sea to human cultures all over the world. World oceans day provides an opportunity every year to do just that. It provides a chance to honour the world’s oceans and to celebrate the products that the oceans provide. It also gives us time to appreciate the sea’s intrinsic value and the need to protect it.
Pollution of the sea is a global problem, but one with intensely local manifestations in the form of the tonnes of plastic that wash up on Scotland’s beaches every year. Indeed—this does not bear much thinking about—there is evidence that many beaches around the world contain almost as much ground-up plastic as they do sand.
World oceans day provides an opportunity to get hands-on in protecting our future with a new mindset, through personal and community action and involvement. Beach clean-ups, education programmes, art contests, film festivals, sustainable seafood events and other planned activities help to raise consciousness of how our lives depend on the oceans.
Sustaining the natural marine environment while supporting Scotland’s vital oil and gas and fishing industries is a major challenge, but I am intensely optimistic, as I am sure are other members, that the sea provides the key to many of Scotland’s most immediate needs. The heavy Atlantic swell and some of the world’s strongest tides are to be harnessed by a breakthrough scheme to generate clean marine energy off northern Scotland. The scheme’s output is predicted to rival that of a nuclear power station—that is before we consider the contribution of smaller wave-powered projects and offshore wind.
World oceans day offers a fitting moment for Scotland to look ahead and think about what we can do for our oceans and what our oceans do for us. There is wider and wider recognition that communities that have traditionally made their living from the sea and people who are concerned about the wider ecological role of the world’s oceans can, and increasingly do, work together in pursuit of a shared goal. For that reason, I support world oceans day and commend the aims of the motion.
17:16
I congratulate Stuart McMillan on securing the debate. I am glad that we are debating the importance of our oceans.
At the weekend I was in the famous Loch Fyne oyster bar. The Gaelic motto of Loch Fyne Oysters is “Nach urramach an cuan”, which means, “How worthy of honour is the sea”. Surely that philosophy should guide policy makers all over the world, where the oceans are concerned. The sea is indeed a wonderful resource, but it is a fragile one that we should honour and respect if we are to ensure its viability for all future generations.
I congratulate the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission on reaching its 50th anniversary this year and I thank everyone who has contributed to the commission’s work over the years. We can all support the IOC’s aim, which is to promote international co-operation and to co-ordinate programmes in research, services and capacity building, so that we can learn more about the nature and resources of the oceans and coastal areas and apply that knowledge for the purposes of improved management, sustainable development and protection of the marine environment.
At Scotland level, it is a positive thing that we have the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010, which has ambitious aims for the protection and—this is crucial—restoration of the marine environment. The 2010 act has broad sectoral support.
There are many worrying matters, such as the decline—almost the disappearance—of many fish species in our sea lochs on the west coast. Especially worrying is the decline in runs of migratory wild salmon and sea trout. Such declines are symptoms of something that is wrong with our marine environment or of something that has changed, so it is vital that there be research and development to ascertain the causes of decline and to identify what can be done to resurrect the missing runs of fish. I call on the Government to take action in that regard. I hope that the much-vaunted fresh start for aquaculture will come up with solutions in that respect; if it does not do so, it will be seen to have failed.
Many of my constituents who make their living from the sea think that Scotland’s vast marine space can satisfy many and varied needs, provided that the Government takes steps to bring the various parties and interests together to produce solutions that ensure that our marine environment is not a battleground but something that can be sustainably utilised by agreement. The 2010 act seeks consent and co-operation; we hope that it will be implemented in that spirit.
In that regard, the Clyde Fishermen’s Association raised a specific point with me, on which the minister might comment. The association is deeply concerned that there is a lack of clarity about the governance arrangements that take precedence in our inshore coastal waters up to 3 miles. Is the marine strategy framework directive or the European Union water framework directive in charge? Surely they cannot both be in charge of the same area. Marine Scotland has so far been unable to provide the required clarity on the question, which people who are in the know find alarming. I would be grateful if the minister could clarify the matter in the debate or give me an answer soon on what is becoming a burning issue. I foresee storms on the horizon, if the matter is not sorted out.
Whenever I debate aquaculture in the Parliament, I talk about the need for us all to seek sustainable coexistence between the wild fish and farmed fish sectors. That is vital to the health of our oceans, especially our coastal waters: it would be disastrous if the wild salmon and sea trout angling tourism for which Scotland has become famous over hundreds of years were to be plagued by sea lice or diseases. It is also vital that the shellfish farms—especially the mussel farms, which have progressed so well—have clean enough water to ensure the viability of their valuable products.
I am pleased that the United Nations has designated a day for our oceans because it raises awareness at an international governmental level. I wish it success and hope that we will hold further such debates in our Parliament. This morning, I listened on Radio 4 to a man who has swum in the sea at the north pole and in a lake on Mount Everest at more than 17,000ft. When he was asked why he did not wear a wet or dry suit, he said that using such devices would eliminate the impact of the contribution that he is making to recognition of the environment’s importance. I congratulate him on his bravery and hope that people continue to make waves.
17:21
As a member whose constituency is sandwiched between the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea, I—perhaps like Alasdair Allan—consider every day to be ocean day. I harbour a degree of scepticism about the ever-more-frequent practice of designating specific days for different, albeit worthy, causes, often in a fairly arbitrary fashion. I note, for example, that we failed to do justice to world information society day in the middle of last month, distracted as we no doubt were by the aftermath of the recent general election. However, I am confident that we will redeem ourselves by bringing out the bunting when it comes to international day for natural disaster reduction. I presume that because predicting when natural disasters might strike—and, therefore, predicting when we might prevent them—is tricky, the UN has simply set aside the second Wednesday in October for that one. Nevertheless, I acknowledge that when such occasions work by providing a useful trigger for collective action locally, nationally and internationally, they can be effective in highlighting important messages and delivering worthwhile action. For that reason, I was happy to sign Stuart McMillan’s motion, so I congratulate him on securing the debate, which is all the more relevant in the light of the appalling disaster that is unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico. I only hope that my sons do not find out that 10 March is international day of awesomeness or that, scarier still, 21 November is world television day.
To raise public awareness of what our marine environment has to offer—the rich biodiversity that it sustains as well as the wide range of demands that we put upon it—Stuart McMillan’s motion quite rightly points to the importance of the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010, which Parliament passed earlier this year. Like Elaine Murray, I feel privileged to have been part of a process that, by common consent, showed the Parliament at its best. It required collaboration between Governments north and south of the border, as Stuart McMillan indicated, as well as a consistent approach by successive Administrations of different political persuasions in Scotland. The expertise of a wide variety of stakeholders was harnessed effectively throughout the scrutiny of that bill.
However, important and encouraging though the wording of the legislation may be, deeds and actions are what matter, as the First Minister has been quick to point out in recent weeks. As Scottish Environment LINK makes clear in its briefing for this debate,
“the Marine (Scotland) Act can play a major role in improving the health of the seas around Scotland if the Act is well implemented”.
Now that the dust has settled on adoption of the act, it would helpful to get the minister’s view on the general duty on the Scottish ministers and public authorities to enhance, where appropriate, the health of the seas around Scotland.
Of course, the central tension that ran through the development and consideration of the act was between the need to protect and, where appropriate, to improve the health of our seas while at the same time acknowledging the interests and rights of the many users of that environment. Those objectives will not necessarily always be in conflict, but we—particularly those in the Government and in Marine Scotland who are responsible for implementing and enforcing the legislation—need to remain alive to that tension. However, I am hopeful that, through regional marine partnerships, any competing interests that exist now and will inevitably arise in the future will be able to be managed sensitively and in a way that those who are affected consider to be credible and legitimate.
It is not difficult to see how those pressures will develop in Orkney, for example. We are immensely proud of the role that our islands are playing at the forefront of efforts that will, we hope, result in Scotland’s spearheading a global renewables revolution, which Alasdair Allan touched on. However, that must not be done by sacrificing the interests of all other users of the seas around our shores, whether they be in fishing, diving, sailing, tourism or even the demands of our lifeline ferry services. It is critical that we find a way to plan effectively so that best and widest possible use is made of our exceptional marine resources.
I am grateful to Stuart McMillan for securing today’s debate. I will raise a glass to the world’s oceans on 8 June and continue to recognise the importance of our seas 365 days of the year, but—perhaps unlike Jamie McGrigor—I may enter my apologies now for the debate on international mountain day in December.
17:25
I congratulate Stuart McMillan on securing this evening’s debate. As he knows, I could probably talk for two hours on the subject without having to draw breath, but I now have less than four minutes. Therefore, I will reflect on just one or two things.
First, in the recent British Petroleum accident, one of the problems was that BP was not prepared for a blow-out preventer not working. As there was no history of that happening, no one had thought about what should be done if a BOP failed. In dealing with our coasts, our attitude should be not, “Oh, that has never happened before,” but, “What would happen in the event of such a threat happening in our seas?” That was the attitude that I took to ship-to-ship oil transfers in the Forth, for instance, on which we were very lucky that Governments both here and in Westminster took a sensible view. They concluded that the Forth was not a good place to carry out such transfers, not so much because there was a huge danger of something going wrong but because any accident that might have occurred would have been a total disaster for natural life in the Forth.
Such a precautionary approach needs to be taken not just to our shores but to a part of the ocean that is rarely mentioned—unlike fish and aquaculture, which we often talk about and which, if I have time, I will also talk about—namely, the sea bed. As well as supporting our lobsters and shellfish, the sea bed is the nursery ground for most of the fish that we harvest, so it is particularly important that we ensure its protection. The biggest threat to the sea bed is dredging, but I am not satisfied that we are as able to control dredging as closely as we should be. For example, the day after the Community of Arran Sea Bed Trust secured protected area status for the tiny little patch of the sea bed off Arran for which it had campaigned so long, two dredgers just sailed straight through with their numbers blacked out. Nothing could be done about that because of the way in which the current legislation works. That needs to be addressed.
Other things over which we have no control include the fact that plankton is moving north. We might need to consider harvesting different fish in the North Sea and in the Atlantic because the warmer-water fish are following the warmer water. At the moment, the plankton is moving faster than the fish.
Looking forward to next year—when I hope to be sitting up in the public gallery smiling to myself as whoever is in government mentions all these things—I will use my remaining one minute to mention a few of the things that I hope will have been achieved by world oceans day 2011. First, I hope that further progress will have been made on controlling dredgers. Secondly, progress should have been made on introducing closed containment to fish farms. That would address many of Jamie McGrigor’s concerns about problems with seals, sea lice and shellfish pollution. Closed containment systems for salmon farms, as for all other types of fish farm, would be seal proof. Furthermore, experience from Norway suggests that it takes only about an hour to treat a few thousand salmon for sea lice before farming can be resumed.
Finally, I would like to hear that we have not unleashed the full power of our fleet on our cod stocks. The lesson to take from the recovery in our cod stocks is that the precautionary measures have worked. The stock had been so severely threatened that many scientists thought that, in the next few years, we might experience a Newfoundland incident, with cod stocks completely disappearing. However, that has not happened and cod stocks are recovering. Now is not the time to allow those stocks to be once again predated on. If any increase in effort is to be allowed, it should be minimal to allow the stock to continue to grow.
I see that I am well over my time. Presiding Officer, it is very kind of you not to have brought me to order—
Do not tempt me.
—but I shall behave myself and resume my seat.
17:30
I welcome this debate to mark world oceans day. I note Liam McArthur’s caveat about the designation of particular days for particular causes, but perhaps world oceans day will have more resonance in Scotland, and I for one am looking forward to world mountain day in December.
I congratulate Stuart McMillan on securing a pioneering debate, the holding of which is timely, given what is happening in the Gulf of Mexico. I suspect that tonight’s debate might be the first of a series of annual debates as the event comes round each year.
Scotland’s seas are home to some 6,500 species of marine plants and animals, including whales, dolphins, seals and spectacular cold-water corals. If we include all the microscopic plants in our seas, that number increases hugely to around 40,000. We face huge biodiversity issues, and Robin Harper and Elaine Murray were quite right to raise some of them, even if my Australian upbringing means that I hear the theme tune to “Jaws” whenever the word “shark” is mentioned—Elaine Murray will forgive me for that.
Scotland’s seas also contribute to sustainable economic growth by supporting 50,000 jobs and overall economic activity that is worth about £2.2 billion, excluding oil and gas revenues. Alasdair Allan’s point in that regard was well made. We have some of the best wave conditions in the world, and tremendous opportunities exist to harness that energy. To put matters into perspective, Scotland’s seas cover an area that is six times larger than its land area. That is no small area to manage.
We take the world oceans day theme of “Our oceans, our responsibility” extremely seriously, as we do the emerging United Nations theme of “Our oceans: opportunities and challenges”. Stuart McMillan and a number of other members mentioned the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010, which, among other things, gave us new powers to establish a network of marine protected areas to protect some of our most precious marine species and habitats. It also delivered an improvement in the balance between seal conservation and sustainable fisheries and fish farms, as well as a streamlined licensing system.
In addition, we are working with other UK Administrations, where necessary. Although marine activities such as defence, shipping and oil and gas have a direct impact on our seas, responsibility for them is currently reserved to Westminster. The issue of oil spills has been raised, which is unsurprising, given what is happening off the coast of America. I can advise the Parliament that there is a comprehensive national contingency plan to cover oil spills in all UK waters. Regular exercises are undertaken to ensure that the bodies that will respond to any spill—which include Marine Scotland, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, Scottish Natural Heritage and local authorities—know their roles. Furthermore, we aim to agree a joint UK marine policy statement, which will set out a consistent approach to underpin integrated management of reserved and devolved issues in the marine environment.
The European marine strategy framework directive requires us to ensure that Scotland’s seas have good environmental status by 2020. Given the dynamic nature of the marine environment, we cannot do that alone. We will need to work within the UK and with other countries to determine the action that is needed and to implement it. One of the issues to consider in the context of the directive is the global marine litter problem, which I am surprised that no one has mentioned. We have affirmed our intention to tackle that problem by supporting several initiatives, such as KIMO’s fishing for litter initiative. In case anyone is wondering, KIMO is short for the Finnish name of a European Union organisation that deals with environmental protection and marine environment issues. In addition, we are developing a marine litter strategy in partnership with stakeholders. European co-operation will be critical.
As Jamie McGrigor indicated, we need the best science to inform our marine decision making. To ensure that we have the best science, Marine Scotland is preparing a Scottish marine science strategy that will set out priorities for the Scottish public sector. In November, Mr Lochhead launched the marine alliance for science and technology for Scotland, otherwise known as MASTS, which is a new higher education pooling initiative—I am sorry about using two puns in the same sentence. Both of those will add a Scottish dimension to complement the UK marine science strategy that was prepared by the Marine Science Co-ordination Committee and launched earlier this year. With regard to Jamie McGrigor’s highly specific point, the answer, as he might imagine, is not simple and I undertake to write to him on it.
Our seas are also a tremendous source of food and energy. It has been recognised that a new regime is needed to replace the common fisheries policy. Scotland is actively involved in seeking the delegation of decision making to member states so that tailored fisheries measures can be introduced to improve sustainability and reduce discards.
Scotland is the largest producer of farmed salmon in the European Union, and the second largest in the world. We are therefore determined to build on our existing management and ensure that that growing aquaculture industry acts as a good neighbour to those who share the aquatic environment.
Of course, Scotland also has an abundance of marine renewable energy resources—approximately 25 per cent of Europe’s offshore wind and tidal potential and 10 per cent of Europe’s wave potential. By any measure, those are significant resources. They could establish Scotland as a powerhouse for renewable energy in Europe, and they are central to our focus on increasing sustainable economic growth and to our response to climate change. Stuart McMillan also rightly reminds us that huge economic benefits derive from the recreational use of our seas.
Reference was made to climate change, and our climate change adaptation framework has established a marine and fisheries work stream—another pun, sorry—which will develop an action plan to build resilience in relation to the changing climate. We continue to assess impacts and make scientific information easily accessible for policy makers through the marine climate change partnership, whose latest annual report card is due to be launched next month.
I reiterate that Scotland’s seas are extremely important to us and to the world. I note that some related events are being held this month. Elaine Murray might be pleased to know that three of the four that I have been informed about are in Dumfries and Galloway.
As world oceans day takes hold of the public imagination, the number of events will grow year on year. We are carrying on Scotland’s marine pioneering tradition with key marine legislation and our innovative approaches to developing marine renewables. We look forward to working with others as we take forward all those initiatives and work to develop Scotland’s first national marine plan.
Our seas are our responsibility and we must rise to the challenges and great opportunities that they provide.
Meeting closed at 17:37.