Fishing for action

In your report, “Experts say UK waters as crucial as tropical seas for biodiversity” (26 September), scientists from the universities of Dundee and Portsmouth point out that UK waters are peculiarly vulnerable to catastrophic collapse from human pressures.

This supports the Sustainable Inshore Fisheries Trust’s belief that action is vital to restore the ecosystem of Scotland’s inshore seas.

Take the Firth of Clyde. It has lost numerous species, and stocks of its culturally important local population of herring are a tiny fraction of their former abundance.

This has already had huge economic implications – a once great fishery for herring, cod and hake and an internationally important sea angling industry are now almost totally lost.

In recent years, more than 99 per cent of the Firth of Clyde commercial fishery landings have been shellfish, because the fin fish are either too rare or too small to be caught.

Our goal must be to enhance biodiversity in order to allow stronger and more resilient commercial fisheries and more vibrant recreational fisheries to flourish.

Charles Millar

Sustainable Inshore Fisheries Trust

Rose Street

Edinburgh