Welcoming today the announcement from the UK Joint Ministerial Committee that Scotland should have devolved responsibility for marine nature conservation extended from the present 12 miles to 200 nautical miles, Scottish Fishermen’s Federation chief executive Bertie Armstrong said: “For Scotland, this aligns the responsibility for specific practical matters of marine nature conservation with that for fisheries management – which was always out to 200 miles.
“We strongly support this because dealing with the two issues separately was disjointed. More broadly, we welcome also the commitment of all the UK administrations to join up marine management across the board; this is essential for coherence – in most matters of consequence in marine planning and management, political boundaries are false.”
