After submitting his own response last week to the ongoing consultation on Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAs), SNP MSP for Na h-Eileanan an Iar, Alasdair Allan, has written to the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands to express his concern over the potential impact of the proposals if implemented in the Western Isles.

Last month, Allan met with the Cabinet Secretary and the then Minister for Environment, Mairi McAllan, to convey the widespread concern being expressed across the constituency over how HPMAs could affect countless coastal communities where the local economy is reliant on the fishing industry.

In his letter to the Cabinet Secretary, Allan says:

“It is important that I am honest about the scale of the concern being expressed in my constituency just now about this issue. In particular, there is a widespread anxiety about the danger that HPMAs could (depending on their location and form) actually impact most on the very forms of fishing that have the least environmental impact.”

The islands’ MSP goes on to say:

“With smaller vessels (typical of the west coast) unable to move to places elsewhere, and creelers unlikely in any case to be able to replicate the established areas they have built up over decades, it is difficult to see what future fishing or fish processing would have in large swathes of my constituency if these designations were introduced along significant areas of the west coast. It is also unclear what the environmental benefits would be of impacting so heavily on lower-impact fishing activity.

“I should add that these fears are not only held in the fishing industry, but are voiced much more widely among other stakeholders, including the local authority, economic agencies, and community organisations. I would welcome any opportunity to discuss with you these concerns which exist in my constituency, and hope that it will be possible for us to have that conversation soon.”