MPAs and windfarm proposals labelled an ‘absolute attack’ on the fishing industry

Fishermen and their families attended the MPA consultation in Lerwick yesterday evening. Photo: Chloe Irvine

Fishermen have condemned plans to introduce MPAs (marine protected areas) and an offshore windfarm on the isles fishing grounds – with a lack of “evidence” at the forefront of concerns.

A public exhibition of the Stoura Offshore Windfarm was held on Thursday at Shetland Museum followed by a drop-in consultation yesterday at Lerwick Town Hall to respond to the MPA proposals.

Fears for the future of the fishing industry were heard at both events this week.

Skerries whitefish fisherman James Anderson said the MPA proposals will “not do any good at all” and continuously closing off areas poses a significant threat to the sector.

“The concept of being able to keep closing this off worries me for the future, especially if it’s sand and gravel.”

Whalsay pelagic fisherman William Polson described both the MPAs and the offshore windfarm proposals as an “absolute attack” on the the fishing industry.

Mr Polson said he is not aware of any evidence to support the need for MPAs and stressed it would “absolutely devastate” the whitefish sector.

He also raised concerns over the lack of knowledge on the potential impacts of offshore windfarms on marine life.

“There’s windfarms coming on some of the best fishing grounds in Europe. They don’t know what effect all those power cables are going to have on the bottom, it’s really worrying,” he added.

Shetland Fisherman Association executive officer Daniel Lawson raised concerns over the offshore development following the results of studies conducted in Norway.

“If you anchor a windfarm on the spawning grounds, what does that do the spawning area if they’re running electromagnetic cables?

“We see studies out of Norway and other places that shows it mesmerises crabs, it stops them growing, migrating and mating.”

Mr Lawson also felt there was a sense of hypocrisy in the fact one of the MPA proposals will prevent fishing in area where cables for offshore wind developments would be permitted.

“Cable routes will all be looking to come into here somewhere, so you can’t fish there because you’ll ‘hurt the value of the seabed’ but we all know they’re going to let them run a cable trench through it.”

He added this is a case of “one rule for one and one rule for the other”.

While speaking at the Stoura Windfarm exhibition on Thursday, project director Dr Cian Desmond said the impact the development would have on marine life is not yet clear.

“I can’t guarantee there’s going to be no impact, there’s going to be new structures out there in the ocean that’s going to change the ocean.

“What we’re working to do is understand what that degree of change is going to be and what it means for the fishing industry.”

When approached at the MPA consultation yesterday, the Scottish government declined to comment.

Read the full story in next week’s Shetland Times.