Wishart leads first fishing debate in Holyrood since 2022

Shetland MSP and Scottish Liberal Democrat, Beatrice Wishart, has led the first fishing debate in Holyrood since 2022. Securing a members debate slot Wishart highlighted the challenges facing Scotland’s Fishing Sector in 2025 touching on issues such as:

• spatial squeeze
• safety at sea
• the impact of the Scottish Economic Link Licence
• protecting family businesses for the future
• concerns about the level of resourcing provided to the Marine Directorate

Ms Wishart also paid tribute to the late Dr Ian Napier, Senior Fisheries Policy Adviser at UHI Shetland. 

Wishart previously held the first debate about the controversial Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAs) proposals in 2023 that were later dropped by the SNP-Green Government.

During the debate Ms Wishart highlighted:

“Fishermen are custodians of our seas, stakeholders in its wellbeing and invested in a sustainable future. 

“We have seen traditional fishing areas lost to at-sea infrastructure. From the discovery of North Sea oil and gas over 50 years ago, we now have a growing renewable energy sector with sites set to host vast swathes of offshore windfarms.

“Climate change is real; so too is spatial squeeze. 

“Offshore wind cannot be at the expense of fishing. A transition is not just if it ends up squeezing the life out of viable fishing businesses.”

After the debate Ms Wishart said:

"There is so much that needs to be aired about the challenges and opportunities for the fishing sector. Almost every paragraph of my speech could have been a debate in itself.

"Our fishermen deserve the equal support of the Scottish Government’s eagerness to champion our world class seafood sector with action. I would like to see greater resource provided to the Marine Directorate to help achieve this.”

Ms Wishart’s speech can be viewed here.

Ms Wishart’s motion text:

Members' Business — S6M-16282 Beatrice Wishart: Opportunities and Challenges for Scotland’s Fishing Sector in 2025

That the Parliament commends the hard-working fishermen of island and coastal communities, including in the Shetland Islands constituency; understands that, as published in the most recent Marine Economic Statistics in December 2024, fishing contributed £335 million to Scotland’s economy in 2022, including £83.3 million from Shetland; notes the dangerous nature of the open sea and the at-sea dangers of manmade infrastructure, as well as from other fishing vessels conducting dangerous procedures and manoeuvres; further notes concern in the sector about increasing competition for marine space and the calls to establish designated cable corridors as a means of addressing spatial squeeze and promoting co-operation; recognises the cultural and economic significance of fishing to Scotland; highlights fish as what it sees as a sustainable, low-carbon source of protein; understands that the Scottish Government has not held a debate on fisheries since 2022, and notes the belief that action to address spatial squeeze in Scotland's seas is in the long-term interests of the fishing sector as well as the wider Scottish economy.

Ms Wishart’s previous debate on HPMAs can be viewed here.