Chamber and committees

I apologise—I may have cut off Jenni Minto before she finished her line of questioning. Had you finished, Jenni?

Ask your question. We do not have a lot of time.

I will kick off with Elaine Whyte and then Bally Philp.

Alasdair, could you please stop?

I would like some clarification. I think that you indicated in an earlier response that, potentially, 2 million cod are caught as nephrops bycatch. That would suggest that two thirds of the total population of cod in the Clyde are caught as bycatch of the nephrops fishery. That seems incredible. Is that absolutely right?

Good morning, and welcome to the seventh meeting in 2022 of the Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee. I remind everyone who is using electronic devices to switch them to silent.

Our first and only item of business is an evidence session with stakeholders on the Sea Fish (Prohibition on Fishing) (Firth of Clyde) (No 2) Order 2022. I welcome our first panel, which consists of representatives from fishing organisations: Simon Macdonald, chair of the West Coast Regional Inshore Fisheries Group; Sean McIllwraith from the Galloway Static Gear Fishermen’s Association; Bally Philp, national co-ordinator for the Scottish Creel Fishermen’s Federation; and Elaine Whyte, executive secretary of the Clyde Fishermen’s Association.

We have about 45 minutes for questions. I will kick off with a question for all the panel members. What impacts will the closure have on fishers in the Clyde? Specifically, to what extent do the changes made in the revised order mitigate those impacts?

I call Mercedes Villalba for a brief supplementary, to be followed by Alasdair Allan.

I call Alasdair Allan.

We discussed this earlier and reached a committee decision—

Russell Cheshire has indicated that he would like to come in. I will then take Alex Watson Crook and Calum Duncan. If you could, please try to address the question directly. We have five or six more questions to come, so I hope that all the points that you are making in your contributions will be covered anyway, but it would be appreciated if you could address the question.