Salmon Scotland
BY HAMISH MACDONELL
Dreaming of a grey Christmas In the season of goodwill, can we set aside “black and white” arguments?
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T is difficult not to wonder where the spirit of Christmas has gone. The season of “goodwill to all” seems to have bypassed all those involved in the recent fishing dispute between the UK and France. Indeed, it was hard to know what was more depressing: the sight of flag-bedecked French fishing vessels buzzing around like angry wasps as they attempted to stop cross-Channel ferries from docking in French ports or the arms-folded intransigence of the negotiators from both sides. This dispute, over the issuing of a small number of licences to French fishing vessels, caused a pre-Christmas headache for Scotland’s salmon producers, who were once again caught in the crossfire of an argument that had nothing to do with them. Then there was the now traditional festive broadside from French television, which broadcast a programme that was so biased against salmon farming it would not qualify for the term “documentary” here. The crew did actually interview someone from Salmon Scotland on camera, but then cut every word of the interview from the programme when it was aired. At home we had the extraordinary decision of a number of galleries to drop salmon from their menus on the advice, apparently, of a group of artists, none of whom had any real connection to salmon farming and certainly not much knowledge. But what was even worse was the reaction of the gallery bosses who took that decision and then hid, refusing to engage with Salmon Scotland or find out what salmon farming actually entailed by accepting an invitation to come to a farm. It would be encouraging to see this activity as a blip, the result of Brexit and Covid tensions – a one-off, an end-of-abad-year hiatus. But, unfortunately, that is unlikely to be the case. All the indications are that we are entering an era of polarised and polarising opinions, and salmon farming will be just one of the sectors struggling to get its – rational – voice heard.
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The privileged activists who crusade against salmon farming in Scotland represent the crudest manifestation of this tendency. They demand that they are right, sure that their blinkered determination allows them to do anything, however potentially destructive or threatening. Just a few days ago, a brave female employee from one of our salmon producers posted a message online making it clear how uncomfortable she felt about unauthorised intruders – “middle-aged men skulking around” as she described them – clambering all over her workplace. In the black-and-white world of the activists, there is no middle ground to their righteous crusade against fish farming, but there is and the woman who bravely posted that comment expressed it perfectly. This isn’t a case of we are right and they are wrong – this is about collateral damage and the effects that actions have on those on the sidelines, impacts the activists never seem to consider. Indeed, if we look at all the issues that affect us, from climate change to Brexit, there is a middle ground. Just dismissing it as “blah, blah, blah” isn’t enough because that
“tooTheremanyare
people who want to simply stick their fingers in their ears
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www.fishfarmermagazine.com
09/12/2021 15:07:09
