Seòmar agus comataidhean

I refer you to paragraphs 7 to 10 on page 22 of our pack of papers, which set out some questions on which I was going to write to the Government for clarification. I will ensure that the questions that you want to ask are included in that letter.

Is the committee content that the provision set out in the notification will be included in the proposed UK SI and that I will write to the Scottish Government, seeking clarification on the questions set out in paragraphs 7 to 10 of paper 4?

Members indicated agreement.

We will give all the witnesses the opportunity to do that, but I ask them to keep their comments as brief as possible. That would be really useful.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee’s 13th meeting in session 6. Before we begin, I remind members who are using electronic devices to switch them to silent mode.

Item 1 is an evidence session looking at the impact of the climate and nature emergencies on areas in the committee’s remit. Today, we will focus on two areas. The first is innovation and new approaches to environmental challenges in the marine environment. I welcome our first panel: Dr Alistair Rennie, who is project manager with Dynamic Coast; Rachel Shucksmith, who is marine spatial planning manager at the University of the Highlands and Islands Shetland; Dr Fiona Read, who is from the Scottish Entanglement Alliance; and Danny Renton, who is chief executive officer of Seawilding.

We had to cancel this session last week because of technical problems, so I very much appreciate the witnesses making themselves available again. I invite Dr Rennie to make a brief opening statement setting out the background to his innovation project, followed by Rachel Shucksmith, Dr Read and Danny Renton.

Rachel Shucksmith, you have a successful marine planning area, which might be because it is a relatively compact area. Should there be legislation to ensure that all stakeholders get round the table? We heard that some coastal communities were not involved in the inshore fisheries groups and so on. Should we see more of such involvement? The arguments over scallop dredging, creel static gear and so on are very polarised at the moment. Would it help if policies were put in place so that everybody came together?

I thank all the witnesses for their introductions. Members will ask questions until about 10.30, and I will kick off. We have heard about individual area-based projects and about wider research. Does current policy support innovation and the mainstreaming of your research findings? What structural changes to policy are needed to support new and on-going projects that will achieve the outcomes that we need to reverse biodiversity loss? I will go round everybody for answers.

You are making some very broad statements that such law breaking appears to be widespread. I would challenge that, as that is not what we have heard in previous evidence sessions. You have suggested that “much of the seabed” is destroyed. You are not quantifying that, and you are again making a very broad statement. We heard from marine scientists from the University of Aberdeen, who suggested that that was not necessarily the case. There were some isolated incidents of damage to the sea bed, but it was not “much of the seabed”. Can you comment on what you mean by “much of the seabed”?

I read a report from back in 2016 that suggested that the number of entanglements of humpback whales in inshore Scottish waters was of a proportion that would mean that the species was unsustainable, and that Scottish inshore waters could act as a high mortality sink for the species in the north-east Atlantic.

Given that we are in 2021 and that there has been a substantial increase in fixed lines, creels or whatever, which have generally been unregulated, do we need to act now to regulate the industry? Do we need to push forward with policies that will help creel fishermen ensure that entanglements happen far less frequently than they happen just now, particularly given the underreporting that you have suggested?

Perhaps Dr Rennie can kick off with that question.

We can come back to you. We will write to you for further information. We will not put you on the spot now—I know how difficult acronyms can be.

I welcome our second panel of witnesses, with whom we will discuss the role of the Scottish public agencies on nature and the environment. They are Terry A’Hearn, chief executive of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency; Grant Moir, chief executive officer of the Cairngorms National Park Authority; Graham Neville, the area manager for northern isles and north Highland at NatureScot; David Signorini, the chief executive of Scottish Forestry; and Andy Wells, investment and sales programme director at Crown Estate Scotland.

I invite each of the witnesses to make a brief opening statement.