Scottish government warned that proposed protection plans fail to protect sea life
WDC has joined a number of Scottish environmental charities in warning the Scottish government that its new proposals to manage fishing in Scotland’s recently established network of protected sea areas could actually risk failing to protect and, crucially, recover the very sea life which these areas were set up to protect.
The proposals issued today by the Scottish government outline a range of scenarios for 20 inshore marine protected areas (MPAs), some of which would allow fishing methods such as scallop-dredging and bottom-trawling to continue to damage the seabed. This on-going damage to the seafloor has wider, negative, knock-on impacts for other marine life, including whales and dolphins, which move around, feeding and breeding in these important sea areas. The plans are now the subject of a three month long public consultation, as Scottish government staff tour coastal communities throughout November and December.
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