Turbines and trade-offs

Salmon Scotland chief executive Tavish Scott reflects on the recent Responsible Seafood Summit and the ongoing debate about the impact of offshore wind on fishing.

St Andrews is a great town. Whether you are a history buff, a golfer, or want to run the West Sands in Chariots of Fire mode, there is something for everyone.

I have enjoyed visiting the Auld Grey Toon for many years due to family links, politics and, of course, the love of golf.

I watched American sporting greats Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus cross the Swilcan Bridge for the last time and have seen Tiger Woods make the famous old links look easy.

St Andrews also hosts one of our country’s oldest universities – the alma mater of many famous people including the late Alex Salmond.

Many things are said and quoted when a notable public figure passes. Salmond had a chequered career by any standards, but was without question a highly significant figure in both Scottish and British politics.

He was on a different side of the fence to me, but what I always appreciated were people of stature who could put political differences aside and talk about wider life and the economy.

When he was First Minister, Alex Salmond came to St Andrews to speak at the National Farmers’ Union Scotland annual meeting. I was a guest and after the formal proceedings, we said hello.

It was not long after a bruising election where his party had done well and mine had most certainly not. But far from rubbing salt into the wound, he cheerfully talked through what was going on, the latest political news and most importantly – as he put it – would I be slipping away from the union bash to play 18 holes?

Wind farm and fishing vessel

A policy dilemma
The NFU meeting on that occasion was hosted in an American-style golf and hotel resort on the south road to Crail. Recently the same venue – Fairmont St Andrews – hosted a Responsible Seafood Summit. This was organised by the Global Seafood Alliance with financial help from Seafood Scotland and thus the Scottish Government. (Summits are a posh way of saying conference – the organisers must have run out of words. When is a conference not a conference but a summit?)

More importantly, delegates from many countries were in Scotland for a couple of days of presentations and debate. The weather was lovely and the sessions were held in the hotel’s atrium.

During a discussion on marine planning, Elspeth Macdonald from the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation and I were left squinting at the audience as the full beam of an October Scottish sun shone down. The moderator was a journalist from east coast USA who was as surprised as the locals by this unseasonable look.

The spatial squeeze is a topical issue around not just Scotland but the entire UK coastline. We debated this with someone from SSE – one of the UK’s major energy companies now developing offshore wind with real intent.

With admirable candour, he said that the offshore renewable industry had not done a great job engaging with the fishing sector yet. There was a bit too much take it or leave it.

The demersal fishing sector – Scottish boats fishing prawns, haddock and mid water species with trawls – are concerned by the considerable acreages of the sea being earmarked for wind turbines. And no wonder.

The scientific assessment of fish stocks in these areas lacks sophistication and data so the fishing sector has a point when it worries about the impact on catches.

The real heart of this issue is government policy: food security versus energy security.

If government wants to bring down energy prices for consumers across the country, policy needs to move away from dependence on energy imports. That is especially so given there appears no end in sight to the Russian war against Ukraine and all that flows from that.

Therefore, offshore wind turbines in vast numbers are a policy that government will have to follow.

But the obvious trade-off is food. Does a government want to put at risk the British consumers’ love of a fish supper?

Coming from Scotland, I am, of course, biased. The best fish supper is to be had where the fish is freshest when landed and then battered. But personal preference aside, the UK consumer likes a fish supper.

If the Scottish fleet cannot catch cod or haddock or at least there are restrictions caused by huge closed-off areas full of wind turbines, then fish imports will rise.

There is greater complexity to this of course.

Most importantly, wind turbines and salmon farming are not in conflict for space.

But as a sector we need to maintain common cause with our colleagues in other seafood industries.

So this is a debate to keep a close eye upon as government ministers weigh up the trade-offs that they will need to make.