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If public accountability and democracy mean anything, the industry must be opened up to transparent investigation and the Government must be held to account over its failure to control the excesses of sea cage fish farming. In what could be a defining moment in the brief history of the Scottish Parliament the decision over whether they can conduct their own inquiry will take place over the coming months.
The Parliament must not allow current problems to fester in a climate of apathy and denial. If the Scottish Government does not conduct an inquiry the public may have no alternative other than to take the matter into their own hands. Over in Canada, the David Suzuki Foundation has taken it upon itself to organise a ‘citizens inquiry’. In Chile, NGOs have set up a ‘Parliament of the Sea’ to debate the future of fish farming. An inquiry would defuse a situation which is at boiling point. As Tom Morton pointed out in The Scotsman earlier this year: ‘What’s the betting somebody starts blowing up cages within the next year? And it wisnae me, officer.’
Don Staniford is a freelance researcher and author of The One That Got Away: Marine Salmon Farming in Scotland’ published by Friends of the Earth Scotland, June 2001.
To demand a public enquiry write to: Andy Kerr MSP, Transport and Environment Committee, Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh, EH99 1SP; Rhona Brankin, Fisheries Minister, Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh, EH99 1SP.
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