ARIANE BURGESS: Sea life has either gone or is in rapid decline
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Most of us in the Highlands live within reach of a place on our 10,000 miles of coastline and Scotland’s last great commons – our sea.
The sea used to support our coastal communities. It was a primary way of livelihood for people living there. And in turn those people would support other businesses by spending locally. But with the decline in the whitefish inshore fishery, it has become harder for people to pursue that way of livelihood.
The life in our seas and on our coasts has either gone or is in rapid decline. Simply put in the face of rising sea temperatures due to climate change and destructive methods of inshore fishing that damage the seabed and destroy habitats, nature doesn’t have the capacity to recover.
Historically, fishing runs in the family, but increasingly young people are turning away from it. They can't find a way to make it work for them financially. They have other interests. Or they are actively discouraged by their parents, who've seen the decline and can't see a future for their children.
Turning away from a way of life made with the sea has meant a general drift of younger people toward cities and the Central Belt in search of other opportunities.
The result is that communities continue to decline. There are not enough people to do all the jobs required. There are not enough families to maintain the local primary school. There is not enough of a population to ensure a complete offering of social services can be provided close by.
The way we manage our inshore waters around Scotland is vital to ensuring all forms of life, not just what is in our sea but also in our coastal communities.
What future do we want for our last great commons?
Crown Estates Scotland own and manage the seabed on behalf of the Ministers in the Scottish Government. And the Scottish Government also manage the fishing quotas that are given to private fishing companies to fish in our seas. In effect, the Scottish Ministers manage the seas on our behalf.
As a step toward bringing in protections that can help to restore the inshore waters, there are several commitments in the Bute House Agreement negotiated between the Scottish Government and the Scottish Greens.
These commitments include bringing in a cap on fishing activity in the inshore and protecting 10 per cent of Scotland's marine life by introducing Highly Protected Marine Areas.
Whatever your relationship with our inshore waters, we must transform our relationship. This great common needs more people to engage in the issues taking place in the inshore. If we act now, together we can reverse the decline.
