§ Lord Moranasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether, in saying in the House on 30th October (col. 879) that "in Scotland the use of drift nets and other hang nets for salmon fishing is already prohibited", Lord Glenarthur was referring only to drift netting at sea and to hang nets in estuaries; whether hang nets in the form of stake and long nets are not still used extensively by interceptory coastal netting stations in Scotland; and if this is so, whether they will now phase out these nets in the light of the recommendation by the Third International Atlantic Salmon Symposium, to which Lord Glenarthur was referring, that "all methods of enmeshing salmon, such as drift nets and fixed hang nets should be phased out."
343WA
§ The Minister of State, Scottish Office (Lord Glenarthur)I was referring to drift nets and other gill nets. Bag nets, fly nets and other stake nets are the lawful methods of fishing for salmon in Scotland outwith estuary limits. Net and coble is the only permitted method of netting salmon within estuary limits. None of the lawful nets are designed to catch fish by enmeshing them. Accordingly, they do not fall within the terms of the symposium's recommendation and the Government have no proposals to phase them out.