Renewing the aquaculture framework

The Scottish Government will seek stakeholders' views on the key issues for the sector to develop a detailed draft strategy which will form the basis of a full public consultation next year. Speaking at yesterday’s Ministerial Working Group on Aquaculture Michael Russell, Minister for Environment, stressed the importance of aquaculture as an industry for rural areas. He said that the Scottish Government is fully committed to supporting a successful, competitive and diverse aquaculture industry in Scotland and that there is scope for the industry to grow. "The time is right to bring aquaculture policy in Scotland up to date to meet fresh challenges in the industry "This is the first step of a process which will refresh and build on what we have in place already and deliver an industry that Scotland can be proud of," Russel said. It is hoped the new Strategy will be published by the autumn of 2008.