§ SIR WILLIAM WEDDERBURN (Banffshire)I beg to ask the Lord Advocate: (1) whether it is the case that, in spite of the decision of the Court of Justiciary, the trawlers continue actively their operations in the Moray Firth; (2) whether the Niger has left the coast and gone south; and (3) whether the Government will give effectual protection to the line fishermen by sending swift police boats with local 367 men on board personally interested in obtaining the capture and punishment of those transgressing the law?
§ THE LORD ADVOCATEH.M.S. Cockchafer and Redwing are now patrolling the Moray Firth with instructions to report every trawler caught fishing in the area covered by Byelaw No. 10. The latter vessel superseded the Niger. The Cockchafer detected four trawlers working off Tarbet Ness on 3rd March; these will be reported to the Procurator Fiscal at Dornoch for prosecution. The Government will continue to protect the line fishermen against breaches of the law; but I cannot accept the details of the scheme shadowed forth in the third paragraph of the Question.