Sea fishing has been my greatest passion for as long as I can remember. I class myself as a Countryman and, apart from a small portion of my existence, I have lived in a rural area for most of my life. I helped out on a shooting estate during my school years and am a keen deer stalker to this day, but I will often return home, to the West Coast of Scotland to wet a line on the rugged coastline whenever time allows.
There’s something about returning to the secret spots that you discovered as a child to see if it still holds the number of fish that it used to. Cooking your catch on a beach fire as the sun dips down behind Northern Ireland and the skies glow orange is hard to beat.
This kind of upbringing has created such a strong love of coastal living for me, and this is something that I am very happy to have passed on to my daughter Ettie. She is 7 years old and, at the time of writing, is 4 fish ahead of me for the year. She also caught her first fish on a fly rod just a few weeks ago and so has clearly got the bug. Could all this be coming to an abrupt end, though?
Our UK coastal areas depend largely on fishing and agriculture to survive. In South-West Scotland, The Mull of Galloway Sea Angling Festival has become one of the biggest events in the UK’s angling calendar. It brings in vital revenue for the local (and extremely rural) economy and has put a long-forgotten corner of Scotland on the map. Local businesses, from cafés to fuel stations, all benefit, but this is now potentially under threat.
A recent report published by the Scottish Animal Welfare Committee (SAWC) has suggested that fish should be given the same welfare considerations as other sentient animals. The report states that the public do not see fish as creatures with feelings - “Humans may have different affective responses to fish, for example, they may be seen as less ‘cute’ than some other species or because of particular human affective responses to species such as sharks”.
The majority of us already practice high levels of care and welfare when fishing. We have minimum size regulations when targeting fish and are sensitive to seasonal restraint in many cases. The majority of recreational anglers do not want to jeopardise the welfare of any fish being returned or their beloved pastime being adversely affected by intentionally harming any fish they have caught. We advocate for self-regulation and continued improvement, but what if The Scottish Government decide to act on the SAWC report, as they have done previously within the hunting and shooting industry? A heavy-handed approach by the Scottish Government is not the way forward and the potential introduction of what could be devastating legislation for our way of life may follow. Just imagine the impact if we are told that we are no longer allowed to fish for recreational purposes and only commercial outfits can operate as they are not fishing for sport.
The sea fishing industry employs around 4,000 people in Scotland and brings in £335m into the economy north of the border. A good percentage of this is made up of recreational angling and business contributions, such as tackle shops and charter boats. Our commercial fleet has also taken a battering of late with Labour using our waters as a bargaining chip when overly restrictive contracts were about to come to an end. Not only are commercial fishing fleets having to contend with revised fishing rights imposed by the UK government, SAWC have suggested that all catches should be individually counted! A preposterous idea, which does not take into account by-catch rules imposed by Marine Scotland or the additional expense from new machinery onboard vessels to count the fish being landed.
In addition, we cannot underestimate the positive impact that recreational fishing has on the mental health and wellbeing of anglers, with the effect during the Covid pandemic proving to be significant. Angling was permitted at the time as it was recognised as a real health benefit. It is well known that fishing is a healthy outdoor activity, improving mental well-being, increased social interaction and allows us to be at one with nature in the great outdoors.
Whilst we agree that fish are somewhat sentient creatures, imposing restrictions on an already heavily impacted industry is not the way forward. With the Scottish elections looming in 2026, the SNP Government would be wise to think long and hard before imposing further legislation on the fishing industry and throwing yet another rural sector under the bus. My organisation will be meeting with MSP’s and Ministers in the coming months in an attempt to halt this before it gains traction. This is something I will be keeping a very close eye on.
This article was originally produced in the Farming Scotland September-October 2025 Issue