Seòmar agus comataidhean

Thank you for clarifying that. We are 15 years on from the 2010 act. When are we going to see all the regional marine plans? I know that we have three, but people are saying that there should be more. Those three have stalled, and there is quite a degree of frustration around the fact that they are not being taken forward.

I have a question before I ask my main question. We have talked a lot about the RIFGs and also FMAC—you set a lot of store by that process of engagement. When did you last meet the full FMAC group?

Where is it currently used?

The fisheries management strategy 2020 to 2030 says that fisheries will play a part

“to reduce emissions and help to create a low carbon economy”.

I would like to get a sense of how the IFMI programme will help us achieve that.

I will ask about something else that has been coming out of this conversation. You have the call for evidence and consultation, and you talked about the challenge of engagement with fishers. The convener talked about the economic aspect, and I am talking now about the environmental aspect and creating a low-carbon economy, which is in the fisheries management strategy. To what extent do the people who you are trying engage understand that there is a fisheries management strategy, that there is certain legislation that we are all trying to do this work under, and that we have signed up to restoring 30 per cent of Scotland’s seas by 2030, which is not that far away?

Do you see what I mean? You are inviting people to engage, and it is all broadly open, but do they understand that it the strategy sits within legal and statutory requirements when they respond to the call for evidence?

That is good to hear.

This morning, we have been having a conversation to try to get a better understanding of this process and the framework that will emerge from it, but you have sometimes said, “Oh, that is dealt with by a different team or department.” I would find it helpful if you could provide us with more information on the IFMI process. You have described what triggered it, but what legislation and strategy does it link back to?

For example, the Fisheries Act 2020 requires an ecosystems-based approach, good environmental status of the sea bed and so on, and there is the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 and the marine strategy. There are all those legal requirements that we are trying to help you to meet, but there is now yet another process, which seems to have started a long time ago but is now producing something that we can see—it is like mycelia, when the mushrooms have fruited.

The agriculture directorate provides us with good maps that show why processes are being done, when they are coming online and which processes are parallel. It would be helpful to provide us with something similar so that we can ask better questions and know what we can ask you and what is the responsibility of other teams. That would mean that we could say, “Can you also bring the compliance team with you, because we want to know how this affects compliance and enforcement?”

It is good to see you all—and to see some of you again. Jim Watson has provided helpful context.

I want to touch on exploitation. You have described where the work has come from, but I am concerned that other pieces of work were going on. Has this work superseded that work? I want to get to the bottom of that. For example, at one point, there was a commitment to consult on a cap on fishing activity in inshore waters up to 3 nautical miles, but that seems to have disappeared in a puff of smoke—I cannot think of a marine metaphor at the moment.

Marine Scotland’s 12-point future fisheries management strategy committed to a consultation on marine protected areas and priority marine features by summer 2023. I am interested in why the marine directorate failed to deliver that. Will that consultation be carried out in the current parliamentary session, following that commitment?

We now have the IFMI programme, but it concerns me that we have not followed through on things that have come forward—we said that there would be a cap on inshore activity, and we made commitments on MPAs and PMFs—so how can the committee have certainty that the IFMI programme will be delivered? Why did you fail to deliver in relation to MPAs? How can we have confidence that the other things that are being brought forward will be delivered, given that the situation is urgent?

Yes, but it is on different spatial measures. I want to get a sense of the relationship between the IFMI programme and the marine spatial planning process. The Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 set out how the regional marine plans would integrate with the national marine plan process, but 15 years later they have not been adopted. I would like to understand whether, through the IFMI process, we will get to a date when all of Scotland’s waters will be covered by such regional marine plans, and whether those plans will include fisheries management.

It was not triggered by the crab and lobster stock issues that came to light.