Wild Fisheries Reform note to SFCC members May 29th 2015

SFCC welcome the Scottish Government's commitment to wide-ranging reform, and will continue to input to the process, guided by engagement with our member Fisheries Trusts

29th May 2015

Dear members,

Since publication of the Wild Fisheries Review (WFR) in October 2014, SFCC has been reflecting on the proposals for reform while working to reconcile its own functions with the principals of the reform. 

SFCC is an association of Fisheries Trusts, Scottish Government, SEPA, SNH and others interested in the evidence based management of freshwater fish and fisheries in Scotland. SFCC currently has 22 member Fisheries Trusts who we intend to engage with continually during the reform process. In line with our constitutional functions, we will target our engagement to the topics of data and training, and will also continue to champion the integration of theoretical science with local/practical management. We will continue to support strong collaboration between the local and the national. Within the Wild Fisheries Review published in 2014, SFCC welcome in particular; the call for national standards of data collection and storage guided by a national strategy, an inclusive and coordinated training programme, and further integration of theoretical/national science with local/practical management.

SFCC support the Scottish Government's commitment to wide-ranging reform as set out in the Consultation. SFCC appreciate herein the balance that has been achieved between the provision of direction, and the call for input and new ideas.  Upon launch of the consultation, SFCC met with the Reform Team in Edinburgh to discuss the process and how the SFCC (through engagement with its membership) could most usefully contribute. We agreed that our efforts should be focussed on the topics of data, training and local-national interface/ coordination. SFCC and its members were also encouraged not to consider these topics in isolation, rather alongside the wider themes of the reform. These principals are set out in page 9 of the consultation, and will be used to channel contributions from the SFCC membership.

Scottish Government have, to date, set out three distinct workstreams:

1. Consultation and subsequent legislation – lead by the Wild Fisheries Review Team.
2. National Wild Fisheries Strategy (including research and data strategy) - Salmon and Recreational Fisheries Policy Team.
3. Training and Continued Professional Development – Institute of Fisheries Management.

SFCC will engage with its membership, Government and IFM/others on all three. SFCC have developed a close working relationship with I.F.M. and have already begun  a process by which to support I.F.M. in leading the training workstream.

Firstly, we propose the following process to guide the drafting of our response to the current consultation:

1. Draft a response to the consultation
2. Circulate to SFCC management committee for feedback.
3. Update at SFCC committee meeting on the 24^th June. All members are welcome to attend
4. Circulate draft version to SFCC membership, inviting any feedback
5. Post submission on this webpage for 14 days inviting any further feedback from junior and senior SFCC Biologists
6. END JULY 2015- Submission.

A timeline and approach to the national strategy (including research and data strategy), and the training workstream will be established in due course. In the coming months it is suggested that SFCC:

1. Meet with leaders of these workstreams and discuss contributions and engagement with the SFCC membership

2. Circulate ideas within SFCC management committee

3. Invite feedback on these ideas from SFCC membership through targeted online questionnaire

4. Share results with workstream team leaders at an appropriate time

5. Share progress/ideas with RAFTS/ASFB JWG and vice-versa.

6. Regroup at September 9^th SFCC committee meeting, and consider a process towards the draft Wild Fisheries Bill.

SFCC are open to suggestions on all of the above and will keep this webpage up to date through out the reform journey in 2015-2016.

Pitlochry, 29th May 2015