Chamber and committees

The members of the Aquaculture Tripartite Working Group are: the Scottish Executive, Scottish Natural Heritage, Scottish Environment Protection Agency, the Association of Salmon Fishery Boards, the Association of West Coast Fisheries Trusts, Scottish Anglers National Association, Atlantic Salmon Trust and Scottish Quality Salmon.

The group published a report and Concordat in July last year. Copies are available in the Parliament's Reference Centre.

As a result of the group's work, six area management agreements, including an umbrella agreement which will lead to five further agreements, have been signed.

The work of the group is on-going.

The Scottish Executive is currently undertaking a review of all coastal waters around Scotland, as part of the UK's obligation to examine areas where eutrophication occurs, or may be likely to occur. This assessment is still to be completed, and so a list of sites cannot be provided at present.

A specification for the review has been prepared and independent experts who may be prepared to carry out the review identified. Contracts have yet to be finalised but study specifications and background reports and other materials have been sent to these experts. It is expected that the reviewers will report in spring 2002. The estimated cost of these contracts is in the range of £10,000-£20,000.

The Continuous Plankton Recorder project (CPR), maintained by the Sir Alister Hardy Foundation, provides important information on the composition and abundance of algae present in the north east Atlantic. The data generated by this project are utilised as part of many assessments of the marine environment. Their particular relevance to the assessment of the environmental effects of aquaculture is in the observation of changes in coastal plankton and the influence of fluctuating oceanic currents on this process. A report using CPR data is being prepared on this question with regard to the issue of eutrophication in UK coastal waters. It is expected to be available in mid-2002.

Copies of the Group's first annual report, for 2000 have been placed in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. number 16504) and membership is set out in Appendix 5. The Group is continuing to work on the tasks outlined in the report. No date has been set for their completion.

The information requested is not held centrally. This is a matter for the Scottish Environment Protection Agency.

The organisations represented on the Aquaculture Forum are :

Highland Council

Argyll & Bute Council

Shetland Islands Council

Orkney Islands Council

Comhairle nan Eilean Siar

North Ayrshire Council

Moray Council

Scottish Quality Salmon

British Marine Finfish Association

Association of Scottish Shellfish Growers

Shetland Salmon Farmers Association

Orkney Fish Farmer's Association

British Trout Association

Seafish Industry Authority

Association of the West Coast Fisheries Trusts

Salmon and Trout Association

Association of District Salmon Fishery Boards

Scottish National Anglers Association

Scottish Environment LINK

Seafish Industry Authority

Scottish Fishermen's Federation

Crown Estate

HIE

SNH

SEPA

SEERAD

Meetings are co-ordinated by Highland Council, who also provide the Secretariat.

The forum last met in Inverness on 23 August, to discuss a joint response to the Executive's ongoing review of aquaculture regulation. Other issues currently being addressed include identification of new areas for aquaculture research, surveying public perceptions of fish farming, the carrying capacity of the marine environment, and contributing to the debate on a long-term strategic framework for aquaculture.

The individual items of work commissioned by the Scottish Executive from Fisheries Research Services are as follows:

Project Code	Description	Start date	End date	Estimated costs 2001-02
FC1183	Evaluation of disinfectants against notifiable diseases, principally fish viruses	Apr-00	Mar-02	£31,540
FC1182	Pathogenic IPN	Apr-00	Mar-03	£88,315
FC1181	Disease susceptibility and immunology of cultured marine fish	Apr-00	Mar-03	£41,290
FC1184	Diagnosis of emerging fish diseases	Apr-00	Mar-03	£110,510
FC1180	Novel oral/immersion vaccine delivery systems for novel DNA vaccine formulations	Apr-98	Mar-03	£67,584
AE1158	Impacts of salmon farming on wild fish populations	Apr-00	Mar-04	£303,528
FC1185	Solutions for legislative control of VHS in the marine environment	Apr-01	Mar-03	£261,362
FC0756	Evaluation of non animal techniques and procedures for the detection of shellfish toxins	Apr-00	Mar-03	£162,128
FC1186	Ecology, biochemistry, genetic characterisation, and immunology of Infectious Salmon Anaemia Virus (ISAV)	Apr-01	Mar-02	£337,943
AE1159	Investigations into the identification and toxicity of Pseudo-nitzschia spp., the causative organisms associated with ASP in shellfish.	Apr-00	Mar-03	£18,616
AE1160	Collation and assessment of historical algal bloom data	Apr-01	Mar-02	£88,251
AE1252	Hydrobiology of the Minches	Apr-96	Mar-02	£33,116

The Scottish Executive also contributes £60,000 annually to a collaborative project investigating the potential environmental impact on the marine environment of sea lice treatments.

Ministers have agreed the following terms of reference for the review:

an examination of the supply of speech and language therapists, physiotherapists and occupational therapists to meet the needs of children requiring these therapies;

an examination of the management and organisation of speech and language therapists, physiotherapists and occupational therapists for children with special educational needs;

an examination of how the current funding mechanisms for speech and language therapy services for children operate and how these might be improved;

Consideration of whether the funding mechanisms for speech and language therapy, physiotherapy and occupational therapy services for children should be aligned, and

an examination of the supply, management and organisation of speech and language therapy for adults with learning disabilities.

The review will commence later this year and a copy of the report will go to ministers in early 2002. Thereafter, a decision will be taken on publication of the report.

In my answer to question S1W-15536, I referred to an additional £1 million for collaborative research which would benefit those fishermen whose vessels were used for trials as well as benefiting fishermen in the longer term.A partnership board has been set up between scientists and leaders of the fishing industry which has identified and agreed upon suitable trials for the additional research money. The trials include both gear research projects and biological or stock research projects.The table sets out the details of the research projects agreed to date, organised by all three research organisations (Fisheries Research Services (FRS), North Atlantic Fisheries College (NAFC) and Sea Fish Industry Authority (SFIA)).It is important to note that some of the figures are estimates and are subject to a degree of variability. Until all the projects have been completed, the costs cannot be defined precisely. The Executive expects that the full amount will be spent in due course.

Month/year	Estimated cost (£000)	Outline aim	Organisation
05/01	42	To assess the distribution, age structure and maturity of haddock around Rockall	FRS
05/01	70	Measure effect on catch of lifting bag, panel position and extension length in pair seines	FRS
06/01	14	Assess the selectivity of 110 and 120mm codends on a smaller trawler	FRS
07/01	45.4	Observe effect of square mesh panel colour on fish behaviour and measure effect on selectivity	FRS
12/01	40.5	Measure effect of extension length on trawl selectivity	FRS
08/01	27	Compare selectivities of 70 and 80mm codends of 4mm single and a 100mm codend of 5mm double twine (in Minches)	FRS
09/01	.5	Measure selectivity of 110 and 120mm codends on smaller trawler	FRS
12/01	38	Assess effect of grids and square mesh panels on cod haddock and saithe in Norwegian sector	FRS
10/01	38	Investigate abundance and distribution of monkfish around Rockall	FRS
10/01	45.2	As above around western continental shelf	FRS
10/01	18.5	Investigate abundance, distribution and proportion of young fish around Shetland	FRS
10/01	18.5	As above around Cape Wrath	FRS
10/01	18.5	As above around Mull	FRS
10/01	18.5	As above around in the Clyde	FRS
11/01	9	Gadoid surveys to study characteristics and behaviour of various stocks over time and especially to study the 1999 haddock year class. Surveys on east and west coasts: November survey	FRS
01/02	9	As above: January survey	FRS
03/02	9	As above: March survey	FRS
11/01	22	Estimate of by-catch in Norway pout fishery	FRS
01/02	36	To see whether there is now a potential for a sprat fishery in the Moray Firth without a high by-catch of juvenile herring	FRS
05/01	43	Catch comparison between 100, 110 and 120mm codends on medium sized trawler	NAFC
08/01	39	Catch comparison between 100, 110 and 120mm codends on small seiner	NAFC
09/01	35.5	Catch comparison between 100, 110 and 120mm codends on small trawler	NAFC
11/01	69	Exploratory survey for deepwater shrimp on the continental shelf around Shetland	NAFC
08/01	18	Catch comparison with modified prawn trawls to reduce whitefish by-catch	SFIA
12/01	59	Catch comparison of single and double length square mesh panels in pair trawls	SFIA
12/01	18	Assess effect of a low headline trawl in reducing whitefish by-catch: SE Scotland	SFIA
12/01	18	As above: Clyde/Irish Sea	SFIA
12/01	28	Investigate effect on selectivity of knotted and knotless square mesh panels
--------	870	Estimated Total Allocated	-----------