Dear Supporters,
Friends of the Sound of Jura is one of more than sixty organisations that have joined the Our Seas Coalition.
Our Seas believes that Scotland’s coastal waters are among the country’s most precious assets, and worth protecting. Our waters are extremely productive, rich in biodiversity and they can support many jobs in coastal communities if they are managed sustainably.
​
Some fishing methods damage life on the seabed, destroying nurseries for commercial fish, such as maerl beds, and harming rare seabed animals. The Scottish Government has identified 11 of these Priority Marine Features (PMF) species and habitats that are most at risk from bottom-contacting fishing (scallop dredging and prawn trawling).
In 2017, a scallop dredger devastated a bed of rare flameshells in Loch Carron.
​
Despite this being one of the best examples of this PMF, the flameshell bed was not legally protected. After a public outcry, the Scottish Cabinet Secretary for the Environment set up an emergency Marine Protected Area, within which it is hoped that the flameshells will gradually recover. She also promised to review the protection given to PMFs from scallop dredging and prawn trawling. This review was launched in 2018 but nothing has come of it so far and the Government’s ambition to protect these PMFs seems to have dwindled almost to nothing. The only tangible action is that trials have started of tracking devices on the smaller scallop dredgers, which would show where the boats are, without being admissible as evidence in court, if the boats are fishing illegally in protected areas.
​
We fear that these devices will be used to claim that PMFs can now be avoided very precisely, so the few areas where this type of fishing is not allowed, such as parts of the Loch Sunart to the Sound of Jura Marine Protected Area, might be opened up to dredging, with just small exclusions around the known PMF locations. Records of PMFs are far from complete and the unknown ones will be at risk.
Although the Government has designated 20% of our seas as Marine Protected Areas, boats using bottom-contacting methods are allowed to continued scraping 95% of Scotland’s seabed, and some boats illegally fish the remaining 5%, where they are banned. Marine Scotland Compliance seems unable to enforce the law.
​
The Scottish Government has control over the management of our inshore area within 12 nautical miles. Its agency, Marine Scotland, is obliged to follow Scotland’s National Marine Plan (NMP) and the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010, which require it to put fisheries on a sustainable footing. The National Performance Framework also commits the Scottish Government,
​
“by 2020 [to] effectively regulate harvesting and end over-fishing … and unregulated fishing and destructive fishing practices and implement science-based plans, in order to restore fish stocks in the shortest time feasible, at least to levels that can produce sustainable yield as determined by their biological characteristics”.
​
The Government has also committed to promote local, small-scale and sustainable fisheries, robust measures to protect vulnerable stocks, and “mechanisms for managing conflicts between fishermen” (Policy FISHERIES 1), so as to manage fisheries in the long-term public interest. Its marine planners must also identify marine carbon sinks and seek to avoid the “Colocaton of damaging activity”. Dredging disturbs the ability of seabed sediments to store carbon.
​
None of these obligations are being met by our Government. In fact, the Scottish Government has failed to meet 11 of the 15 indicators it uses to measure Good Environmental Status, allowing our marine environment to decline.
​
The longer Ministers stall, the more seabed habitats we lose and the harder it becomes for them and the species that rely on them to recover.
​
Our seas are a public asset and potential resource; they must be managed in a way that restores lost marine life and degraded fish stocks, and recovers the marine environment, so it can provide for us all into the future. To restore public confidence, Ministers must be guided by science and policy. We need urgent action to stop further destruction and improve the resilience of our seas.
​
So, what can be done to preserve what’s left and allow recovery?
​
The degradation can still be reversed. If we protect the seabed it will recover. If we take action, environmental and economic benefits will flow.
​
This European Environment Agency report, Marine Messages, states it clearly:
​
"Solutions for halting the loss of marine biodiversity and starting to restore ecosystem resilience, while allowing for the sustainable use of Europe's seas, are obvious and available. They just need to be implemented.”
​
But that is not happening in Scotland.
​
In the absence of any progress to protect and restore Scotland’s seabed habitats and animals, and with the laws on illegal fishing going unenforced, Our Seas calls on First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and the Scottish Government to implement their own policies and stop the chronic destruction of our seabed.
​
Reinstating a coastal limit on bottom-trawl and dredge fishing seems to be the only way for this to be enforceable, so Our Seas calls for the Scottish Government to act urgently on this.
​
Our Seas is campaigning to Bring Back the Fish - Bring Back Scotland's #InshoreLimit
Please help this to happen by signing and sharing the Our Seas petition here
Please join us in supporting this petition:-
https://ourseasscotland.eaction.org.uk/bring-back-the-fish
Friends of the Sound of Jura have recently added their name to support a Global Call for the United Nations Human Rights Council to recognise without delay the human right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment.
In this time of climate emergency and COVID-19 crisis, we have come together as civil society organizations, social movements, local communities, and Indigenous Peoples to address the attached letter, calling on the United Nations Human Rights Council to recognize without delay the human right to a safe, clean, healthy, and sustainable environment. We respectfully ask you to join with us, support this call, and share it with other organizations that might be interested in joining this call.
Details can be found on the following link:
bit.ly/Right2Environment_SignOn
Friends of the Sound of Jura
www.friendsofthesoundofjura.org.uk
Community Group Member of
The Coastal Communities Network, Scotland
Friends of the Sound of Jura is a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation: SC049740
​
​
Dear Supporters,
Friends of the Sound of Jura is one of more than sixty organisations that have joined the Our Seas Coalition.
Our Seas believes that Scotland’s coastal waters are among the country’s most precious assets, and worth protecting. Our waters are extremely productive, rich in biodiversity and they can support many jobs in coastal communities if they are managed sustainably.
​
Some fishing methods damage life on the seabed, destroying nurseries for commercial fish, such as maerl beds, and harming rare seabed animals. The Scottish Government has identified 11 of these Priority Marine Features (PMF) species and habitats that are most at risk from bottom-contacting fishing (scallop dredging and prawn trawling).
In 2017, a scallop dredger devastated a bed of rare flameshells in Loch Carron.
​
Despite this being one of the best examples of this PMF, the flameshell bed was not legally protected. After a public outcry, the Scottish Cabinet Secretary for the Environment set up an emergency Marine Protected Area, within which it is hoped that the flameshells will gradually recover. She also promised to review the protection given to PMFs from scallop dredging and prawn trawling. This review was launched in 2018 but nothing has come of it so far and the Government’s ambition to protect these PMFs seems to have dwindled almost to nothing. The only tangible action is that trials have started of tracking devices on the smaller scallop dredgers, which would show where the boats are, without being admissible as evidence in court, if the boats are fishing illegally in protected areas.
​
We fear that these devices will be used to claim that PMFs can now be avoided very precisely, so the few areas where this type of fishing is not allowed, such as parts of the Loch Sunart to the Sound of Jura Marine Protected Area, might be opened up to dredging, with just small exclusions around the known PMF locations. Records of PMFs are far from complete and the unknown ones will be at risk.
Although the Government has designated 20% of our seas as Marine Protected Areas, boats using bottom-contacting methods are allowed to continued scraping 95% of Scotland’s seabed, and some boats illegally fish the remaining 5%, where they are banned. Marine Scotland Compliance seems unable to enforce the law.
​
The Scottish Government has control over the management of our inshore area within 12 nautical miles. Its agency, Marine Scotland, is obliged to follow Scotland’s National Marine Plan (NMP) and the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010, which require it to put fisheries on a sustainable footing. The National Performance Framework also commits the Scottish Government,
​
“by 2020 [to] effectively regulate harvesting and end over-fishing … and unregulated fishing and destructive fishing practices and implement science-based plans, in order to restore fish stocks in the shortest time feasible, at least to levels that can produce sustainable yield as determined by their biological characteristics”.
​
The Government has also committed to promote local, small-scale and sustainable fisheries, robust measures to protect vulnerable stocks, and “mechanisms for managing conflicts between fishermen” (Policy FISHERIES 1), so as to manage fisheries in the long-term public interest. Its marine planners must also identify marine carbon sinks and seek to avoid the “Colocaton of damaging activity”. Dredging disturbs the ability of seabed sediments to store carbon.
​
None of these obligations are being met by our Government. In fact, the Scottish Government has failed to meet 11 of the 15 indicators it uses to measure Good Environmental Status, allowing our marine environment to decline.
​
The longer Ministers stall, the more seabed habitats we lose and the harder it becomes for them and the species that rely on them to recover.
​
Our seas are a public asset and potential resource; they must be managed in a way that restores lost marine life and degraded fish stocks, and recovers the marine environment, so it can provide for us all into the future. To restore public confidence, Ministers must be guided by science and policy. We need urgent action to stop further destruction and improve the resilience of our seas.
​
So, what can be done to preserve what’s left and allow recovery?
​
The degradation can still be reversed. If we protect the seabed it will recover. If we take action, environmental and economic benefits will flow.
​
This European Environment Agency report, Marine Messages, states it clearly:
​
"Solutions for halting the loss of marine biodiversity and starting to restore ecosystem resilience, while allowing for the sustainable use of Europe's seas, are obvious and available. They just need to be implemented.”
​
But that is not happening in Scotland.
​
In the absence of any progress to protect and restore Scotland’s seabed habitats and animals, and with the laws on illegal fishing going unenforced, Our Seas calls on First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and the Scottish Government to implement their own policies and stop the chronic destruction of our seabed.
​
Reinstating a coastal limit on bottom-trawl and dredge fishing seems to be the only way for this to be enforceable, so Our Seas calls for the Scottish Government to act urgently on this.
​
Our Seas is campaigning to Bring Back the Fish - Bring Back Scotland's #InshoreLimit
Please help this to happen by signing and sharing the Our Seas petition here
Please join us in supporting this petition:-
https://ourseasscotland.eaction.org.uk/bring-back-the-fish
Friends of the Sound of Jura have recently added their name to support a Global Call for the United Nations Human Rights Council to recognise without delay the human right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment.
In this time of climate emergency and COVID-19 crisis, we have come together as civil society organizations, social movements, local communities, and Indigenous Peoples to address the attached letter, calling on the United Nations Human Rights Council to recognize without delay the human right to a safe, clean, healthy, and sustainable environment. We respectfully ask you to join with us, support this call, and share it with other organizations that might be interested in joining this call.
Details can be found on the following link:
bit.ly/Right2Environment_SignOn
Friends of the Sound of Jura
www.friendsofthesoundofjura.org.uk
Community Group Member of
The Coastal Communities Network, Scotland
Friends of the Sound of Jura is a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation: SC049740
​
​

Media coverage Sept 2018
Home > General media coverage > Media coverage Sept 2018
Oban Times letters page 28 Sept 2018
Fish farm poses threat to "place of wonder and amazement"
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Undercurrent News website, 24 Sept 2018
Scottish Government criticised over salmon farm expansion plan
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The Scotsman website, 23 Sept 2018
Fears raised over eco risks of fish farm expansion plan
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Fish Farming Expert, 19 Sept 2018
SEPA regulator to become Scottish salmon sustainability chief
The Guardian website, 19 Sept 2018
RSPCA rescues one seal - and sanctions the killing of many others
Oban Times, 18 Sept 2018
More than 1400 oppose fish farm off Jura's west coast
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Islanders on Jura are hitting back at plans for the first fish farm on its remote west coast.
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Kilmelford-based Kames Fish Farming Ltd, in a pre-planning application to Argyll and Bute Council, is ‘scoping opinion’ for a 14-pen fin fish farm near Corpach Bay.
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An online petition to stop the development, started by residents Louise Muir and deer stalker Craig Rozga, had collected 400 signatures in the first 24 hours, and more than 1,400 by Tuesday this week.
Mrs Muir, who has a background in environmental conservation, said: ‘There are important principles at stake. It is a place precious to many who come to seek solitude and appreciate the remote and beautiful landscape.
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‘It is impossible to mitigate the visual impact. Its presence alone would remove the wilderness and scenic qualities valued by many.’
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The area is designated ‘Wild Land’ and ‘Area of Panoramic Quality’ and lies within the Inner Hebrides and The Minches Special Area of Conservation (SAC), she said, and is ‘rich in rare wildlife’, such as harbour porpoises, dolphins, and minke, killer and sei whales.
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‘The plan shows acoustic deterrent devices (ADDs) would be used to deter seals. Cetaceans can be displaced by ADDs at ranges of 7km. The cumulative impact will be devastating to these species.
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‘Impacts from lice, disease, pesticides and waste, to not only wild fish, but other marine life is unacceptable. The estates on Islay and Jura work hard to conserve and enhance their local native populations.
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‘The proposal is flawed: there has been no consideration to the exposed nature of the site and the high potential for escaped stock and mooring instability of the cages.
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‘There has been no hydrodynamic modelling, no benthic (seabed) biology survey submitted, maximum stocking biomass has been increased to levels for which further investigations are needed and fallow periods are unsustainably short. Impacts to other wildlife have not been considered.
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‘A promise of six jobs, while sacrificing a rare wild landscape and unspoiled marine habitats, is not appropriate or sustainable economic development.’
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Stuart Cannon, managing director of Kames Fish Farming Limited, said it is ‘an environmentally responsible company which has produced high quality, sustainable fish for more than 45 years’.
He added: ‘We are very much aware there is a balance to be struck, and would not want to place a site where there would be risk to the amazing biodiversity we have on the west coast.
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‘We have withdrawn applications in the past where the scientific assessment of the site has suggested the site is not suitable. We require new sites to meet the growing demand for our product and want to place these sites in areas deemed suitable by the application process.’
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Scotsman, 17 Sept 2018
Mechanical dredging for kelp would be environmental vandalism, MSPs told
Scotsman, 17 Sept 2018
Argyllshire Advertiser 14 Sept 2018
Hundreds sign petition against fish farm off Jura's west coast

Letter to Argyllshire Advertiser 14 Sept 2018

BBC News website, 12 September 2018

Oban Times, 6 September 2018
First fish farm planned for Jura's wild west coast
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Plans have been submitted to Argyll and Bute Council to build the first fish farm off the Isle of Jura’s wild and uninhabited west coast.
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Kilmelford-based Kames Fish Farming Ltd, in a pre-planning application, is ‘screening and scoping opinion’ for a 14-pen fin fish farm north of Corpach Bay, 15km south west of the Gulf of Corryvreckan.
Last December Kames withdrew its controversial plan to site the first fish farm in the Sound of Jura, opposed by a 3,000 signature petition, and has been scoping potential sites within reach of their shore bases in Loch Craignish and Loch Melfort, and has now selected ‘Jura West’.
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Kames’ report states: ‘To date no clearly alternative location that is also compatible with technical constraints has been identified.’
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The salmon and sea trout farm would likely consist of two rows of 14 38m diameter circular pens, in a 70m square grid per pen, with a 43.4m by 15m and 10m high feed barge, 100-120m off shore.
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‘The remote and exposed location of the site means that a large feed barge is required for feed storage and for staff accommodation,’ the report went on to say.
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The feed barge will have a generator, though noise would be ‘effectively baffled’, and navigational and utility lights for night or winter working.
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The report continued: ‘The site would be managed from the Argyll mainland with no new shore-based infrastructure. There is no contemporary development on the coast, the land being extensive deer forest. The area is valued for its wildness, remoteness and tranquillity.
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‘There is no night time illumination on Jura, the island appearing as a dark mass. There is no habitation on Jura visible from the sea and no apparent influence of human occupation or infrastructure, creating an impression of remoteness.
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‘In places the proposed development will be prominent and seen at close proximity,’ and ‘partly visible’ 500m south at ‘rarely visited’ Corpach Bay, ‘evidently used by wild campers and picnics’.
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‘Those walkers who do come here will be here for the scenic quality, tranquillity, sense of remoteness and wildness, as well as the panoramic views.
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‘Despite its perceived remoteness, along the coast there are areas of scattered debris on the strand line and amongst the rocky inlets.
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‘Respondents will be relatively few in number, but highly sensitive to the proposed development.’
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Salmon Business website 5 Sept 2018
Animal tragedy in Scotland: In no way or form is this acceptable
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BBC website, 4 Sept 2018
Campaigners claim fish farms are to blame for wild salmon deaths
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The Ferret, 3 Sept 2018
Sick salmon at Scottish fish farm revealed on film
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Salmon & Trout Conservation, Sept 2018
The hot dry summer seems to have been ideal for sea lice, with devastating consequences for wild salmon, even the adults, which are usually not as badly hit as smolts. There seem to have been mass die-offs of farmed fish too.