Scottish ministers have ‘duty’ to protect seabed from harmful fishing, says court | Fishing industry

The Scottish government should stop approving licences for fishing vessels using methods believed to cause harm to habitats, a charity working to protect marine life has urged, after a court declared a routine licensing decision to be unlawful.

Scotland’s highest court ruled that the Scottish government had failed to act in accordance with Scotland’s National Marine Plan (NMP) when varying fishing licences last December, after a judicial review by the conservation charity Open Seas. It is legally obliged to act in accordance with its environmental duties, as stated in the NMP, when making these decisions.

The charity argued that the December decision on licences, involving vessels that drag weighted nets over the seabed to gather scallops and nephrops, better known as Norway lobster or Dublin Bay prawn, was not taken in accordance with the national plan, which classifies certain marine features and habitats as “priority marine features”.

After a full hearing in May and an initial ruling a month later, the court of session’s Lord Braid issued a ruling on 7 July declaring the government’s decision unlawful because it had acted “in contravention” of the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010.

Scottish ministers would now be “grossly negligent” in their responsibilities if they continued to approve and vary scallop dredging and trawling licences in areas where they risked damaging marine habitats, Open Seas said.

Phil Taylor, director of Open Seas, said: “We have had to go to court to establish there is a duty to act immediately to protect marine habitats. We know where these habitats are. The Scottish government knows where these habitats are. There is now no excuse to continue approving the harm being caused to them.

“The Scottish government is not a bureaucratic bystander – it is actively licensing scallop dredging in areas that cause harm to the very marine habitats they are duty bound to protect. Business as usual is not an option.

“It’s time the Scottish government took urgent action to stop scallop dredging damaging our seabeds.”

Marine Scotland, the government department in charge of managing the country’s marine resources, routinely varies the licences it issues to fishers, for instance to limit catches or areas where fishing can take place. The judicial review brought by Open Seas concerned a decision made by the Scottish government to vary fishing licences on 30 December 2022.

The charity argued that the Scottish government was failing to consider the effects of scallop dredging and bottom-trawling on known seabed habitats. It had corresponded with the government on the matter for years, it said, even providing video evidence of harm caused by scallop dredging to slow-growing maerl beds in coastal waters around Orkney.

A Scottish government spokesperson said: “Ministers are considering the court’s decision and it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time.”