Angling at sea hooks GBP140m for Scottish economy

ITS popularity is undisputed. But just how big a catch sea angling is to the Scottish economy is laid bare in a major new report.

Generating £140m a year and supporting more than 3100 jobs, many in rural areas, the sport is worth at least as much as golf tourism.

And while already more valuable than all freshwater fishing, including that of salmon and trout combined, a 50per cent increase in sea angling activity could create about 2000 additional jobs.

They were findings that yesterday prompted environment minister Richard Lochhead to announce Scotland's first strategic plan for sea angling, a commitment that took even angling campaigners by surprise.

A working group will be set up within the next three months to examine how best to promote the sport, the minister said as he joined members of a sea fishing conservation group to sample sea angling at first hand off the Mull of Galloway.

Speaking aboard a charter boat as he captured and returned pollack and mackerel, Mr Lochhead said: "This report is the first to examine the economic impact of sea angling in depth and the results are significant. It shows there are 125,000 regular participants in Scotland with an average annual spend of more than £1500.

"But the potential for further development is huge and the next step must be to set up a group to take forward a development strategy."

The working group will comprise anglers as well as local authorities, tourist agencies, marine scientists and commercial fishery representatives. It is expected to be tasked with delivering a strategic plan before the next Holyrood election.

However, hopes that the government might be ready to create special "regeneration zones" to boost dwindling inshore fish stocks proved unrealistic. Mr Lochhead said any special protection status for coastal areas would be managed under the forthcoming Marine Bill, now going through parliament.

Yesterday's report on the Economic Impact of Recreational Sea Angling in Scotland was commissioned by the government last year from the public policy division of Glasgow Caledonian University under senior lecturer Alan Radford, and forms the last in a series examining the value of all types of angling.

Researchers carried out exhaustive surveys across Scotland last year. The report concludes the sector has "significant potential for growth", noting that "if Scotland were to achieve a 50per cent increase in sea angling activity levels this would secure a minimum of 1675 jobs, and could possibly add a further 840."

The key to unlocking this potential, it states, "is to ensure the availability of fish stocks for anglers to catch."

The study was delivered yesterday to a meeting in Drummore, a key sea angling village on the Mull of Galloway. Angling campaigners and politicians from all sides and welcomed the results. Alex Ferguson, the Galloway MSP, said: "I am delighted the report recognises that the potential for the rural Scottish economy is considerable."

Shadow rural affairs minister, John Scott, MSP for Ayr, said: "The creation of a development strategy is vital for all the communities which depend on sea angling and we will be following its progress with great interest."

Wolf Richthofen, of Stranraer and district Chamber of Commerce, said the organisation would be working with other chambers in coastal areas to put pressure on the government to deliver its strategy and ensure that the potential identified in the report was fully realised.

Steve Bastiman, chairman of the Scottish Sea Angling Conservation Network (SSACN), which hosted the environment minister's sea fishing trip yesterday, said last night: "We are very encouraged by the minister's statement and attitude and are looking forward to playing an integral part of the strategy plan."

The SSACN is leading the way in marine conservation around Scotland and has founded a shark tagging programme to present evidence to the government of the threat to key species at the heart of the sea angling industry.

Mr Bastiman said: "As recently as the 1980s, Scotland was a major European destination for sea anglers looking to catch specimen examples of a wide variety of species. However, due to poor fisheries management over the last two decades, the stocks of many of those have been almost totally depleted."

The new study confirms for the first time that the Firth of Clyde has been deserted by anglers largely because of the decline in fish abundance.