Wild Wrasse Fishery – 2021/22 Report

2. Introduction

Since the 1990’s, wrasse have played an important role in aquaculture as cleaner fish. Sea lice infestation in farmed fish species can pose a serious problem and wrasse provide a solution without the use of chemical treatments, which can have adverse effects on the natural environment. However, it is important that wild-caught wrasse are fished sustainably, with effective management measures in place.

Voluntary arrangements were introduced in 2018 jointly by the Scottish Government and Salmon Scotland because of concerns for the sustainability of the wild wrasse fishery. The Scottish Government reviewed these measures in 2020, proposed control measures as mandatory and introduced new measures relating to access to the fishery and data reporting. These were subsequently put out to consultation in the paper ‘Wild Wrasse Harvesting: Consultation on Proposed New Mandatory Fishing Measures’. The consultation invited views on whether the Scottish Government should introduce mandatory measures to control the harvesting of live wrasse for the salmon farming industry. The consultation ran from 11th March 2020 to 10th May 2020 and attracted 154 responses from a range of interests including fishers, salmon farm operators, environmental groups, industry representative groups and members of the public. In total there were 116 individual responses and 38 organisational responses.^[1]