12th September 2025
Scottish Environment LINK submitted written evidence to the Rural Affairs and Islands Committee on Offshore Fishing (Prohibition of Fishing Methods) (Scotland) Order 2025 (SSI 2025/240).
LINK Marine Group members welcome progress being made after so many years. We acknowledge that Scottish offshore MPAs are now better protected than in the absence of any measures, and support the implementation of the long-awaited management measures. however, the zonal restrictions in most offshore sites does not match the scale of the biodiversity crisis and the declining state of our seas. In those cases, as discussed above, we would have preferred a whole-site.