Chamber and committees

That was nicely parked, minister.

Let us move on to the announcement that you have made to the committee this morning. I reiterate that I am delighted that you made it to the committee—I just want to make sure that committee members have a chance to ask questions about it. Douglas Lumsden has indicated that he wants to ask a question, as has Bob Doris.

Yes. I reiterate that I have an interest in a salmon fishing partnership on the river Spey, which relies on wild salmon. Those salmon migrate around Scotland’s coast as smolt, heading north. However, there are no salmon farms in the Moray Firth that could come into conflict with them.

I also declare that the salmon fisheries are normally members of salmon fishery boards, which represent proprietors’ interests. I am not on the board in my area—the Spey Fishery Board—although my partnership contributes to it, and I believe that the board contributes to Fisheries Management Scotland, whose chief executive, Alan Wells, we will hear from later. However, I have had no interaction with that organisation through the fishery board or through my role as a proprietor.

I have read your report, which I think was published in May 2020. You will be as proud of it as I am of the Rural Environment and Connectivity Committee’s report, which had 65 recommendations. Do you think that I am right to be disappointed that few of those recommendations have been implemented?

Okay, so that is where you and I agree. I think that salmon farming should definitely continue—it is important—but, as a good neighbour, as far as salmon fisheries are concerned, you probably ought to look at the Government’s latest report on salmon fishing and the number of jobs and amount of money that the industry brings into local economies, which are probably as significant in remote areas as salmon farming.

I probably agree with you. If you look at the North Esk counts, returning smolts used to be about 25 per cent. They are down to about 2 per cent now, which indicates a wider problem.

You question whether people should be fishing for an endangered species. I know for a fact, because I follow the issue regularly, that, on the Spey, 96 per cent of salmon are returned—a very small number are killed. If salmon fishers should give up, could it not be argued that salmon farmers should give up, on the basis that they are probably damaging more fish than fishermen are?

One of the things that has come out of the process that we have been engaged in is the fact that salmon farmers, wild fish interests and other users of the sea need to be good neighbours. Do you think that salmon farmers are good neighbours?

My final question is a simple one. We have heard from industry on numerous occasions that some of the most vulnerable times are when young smolts are put to sea to be put into cages. They have soft skin and often need to prophylactically medicated before they go out, in order to give them long-lasting protection against sea lice. Let us say that a wild smolt from a river swims past a fish farm where there are sea lice. If the smolt picks up two or three sea lice, will it survive?

My problem is that there is no monitoring of wild fish when they go past fish pens, so we have no idea of the effects. I absolutely take your point that wild fish have always had sea lice on them. Animals have always had liver fluke and various types of worms, but the more intensively that they are farmed and the closer that they are kept together, the more they have to be treated for those conditions. If other animals have liver fluke and other worms, farm animals are more likely to pick those up in paddocks.

Looking at the salmon farming and wild fish sectors, what would be the one thing that salmon farming could do that would make the biggest difference to both of them getting on better?

Jeremy Moody eloquently made that point previously and I have noted it. I am short of time, so I will move to Mark Ruskell.

We turn to agenda item 2, which is our fourth evidence session on the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill. Our focus today is on part 2 of the bill, “Leasing Land”.

I am pleased to welcome Gemma Cooper, the head of policy of NFU Scotland; Christopher Nicholson, the chairman of the Scottish Tenant Farmers Association; Jackie McCreery, the legal adviser for Scottish Land & Estates; Mhairi Robertson, the land manager and chartered surveyor with the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors; and Jeremy Moody, the secretary and adviser for the Central Association of Agricultural Valuers. Good morning to you all.

A heap of questions will come your way this morning, so I will open with a simple yes or no question. [Interruption.] Before I do that—thank you for reminding me—I have to declare my interests, as I do every time. I have an interest in a farming partnership in Moray, as set out in the register of members’ interests. Specifically, I declare an interest as an owner of approximately 500 acres of farmed land, of which approximately 50 acres is woodland. I also declare that I am a tenant of approximately 500 acres in Moray under a non-agricultural tenancy and I have another farming tenancy for about 20 acres under the Agricultural Holdings (Scotland) Act 1991. I should also declare that occasionally, if I can, I take on annual grass lets.

We have allowed about 90 minutes for this session and we will see how we go. I will go to my easy yes or no question, after the interesting session that we had at the Royal Highland Show on Friday. Will part 2 of the bill create more agricultural tenants in Scotland? You can give a yes/no or a simple sentence.